Swanfire Drabble Challenge
by Once.upon.a.happy.ending
Summary: A series of Swanfire drabbles using a dialogue prompt list from Pinterest. Rated T just to be safe.
1. Tackle Hugs

**Hi! Most of you are probably coming from Both of Us, which is awesome, so thank you! This is going to be a little bit different than that because I'm not taking prompts and I'm following a dialogue prompt list. If you have any ideas, feel free to comment them either here or on any other story, but just know that they'll go to Both of Us, or if they aren't Swanfire related, I might be making a new story for those soon so I'll probably post those there. Thank you and I hope you enjoy!**

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Emma looks up the staircase, smiling as she remembers that Neal is still upstairs. When he's upstairs, generally that means he's in bed. Emma laughs as she looks at her parents and they both sigh, knowing to prepare for a lot of noise coming from upstairs.

She places her mug of hot cocoa back down onto the breakfast bar, standing up from her stool and starting to run up the metal steps, a quiet clinking sound occurring each time she put her foot down on the next step.

She opens the door to the room quickly, running over to the bed and jumping onto it, practically landing right on top of Neal. It wouldn't be a problem if she was being gentle, but she wasn't. She weighs almost nothing and yet it makes him groan every time she does this.

She giggles a little bit as she moves over, settling into his chest and putting her head down. He puts his hand on the back of her head and sighs as he begins rubbing his fingers through her hair. "That's starting to get annoying, you know," he says and she nods, putting her head down on his chest.

He looks down at her and she looks back up at him, smiling a little bit before he starts talking again. "I'm serious. You know, it hurts when you do that? It's like if Roland was to come and pounce on _you_ , or if Henry did," he says and he can tell that she starts to get it when she winces a little bit and then looks away from him, no longer looking at his face.

He continues to rub his hand up and down her back, brushing his fingers through her hair. "I know you don't mean to hurt anybody, Em. Just be gentle, alright?" he asks and she nods, not saying anything and still not looking up to meet his gaze.

He stops moving his hand up and down her back so that he can rearrange his arms so that his hand is under her arm and he pulls her up a little bit. He then reaches down and kisses the top of her head, beginning to rub her back once again. "I'm sorry," she mumbles, tilting her head so her face is slightly covered up by his shirt.

He smiles a little bit, chuckling as he stops rubbing her back and his hand rests in the middle of her back, his hand still over the ends of her hair. "I forgive you. Don't worry, be happy," he tells her, moving his hand from her back to her arm as he looks down to try to see her face to make sure that she's not crying.

That's how his girl is, she feels bad when she hurts people, even when she doesn't know what she's doing.

She doesn't appear to be crying, instead just close to it when he moves back, placing his hand back on her back. He bends back down and kisses the top of her head once again, putting his hand on the back of her head now. "Hey, look at me, Em," he whispers, removing his hand and putting it down on her back.

He looks down at her and rubs her back up and down. "You know I still love you. I know you do. I'll tickle you, I swear, you better smile," he threatens but she still doesn't smile, or at least she doesn't show it.

He then reaches down and tickles her sides until she breaks down laughing. "See, look at that! Now, there's a smile," he says, smiling extra bright. He reaches down and wraps her arms around her, closing his eyes as she hugs him as well.

"Now, let's go make some blueberry muffins or something else that makes you smile," he says and she nods, leaning back so he can sit up before taking his hand as they get up and walk down the staircase together.


	2. Death Grip

**Hi! So, I'm going to try to do one of these every day, but I can't promise anything. You can check the bottom for the prompt I did this off of. Enjoy!**

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Neal was never told who it was exactly that had hurt Emma; hurt her so badly that she would tense up when he raised his voice or start crying when they fought over little things. He just knew that there had been lots of cases where she hadn't been treated right.

He didn't know all they had done to her though. He knew that she had pretty much been everywhere, though. From name-calling to just perfect torture; if you could name it, it had happened to either her or someone that she knew in the system.

He also knew that there was one home, in particular, that was different than the others. They had eased it in, set her in the routine of getting hurt worse and worse day by day. That was all she told him, though. That and the fact that the big long scar that went across the skin on the outside of her forearm was one of the many, many things that they had done to her there.

It wasn't the worst thing, though. There had been _much_ worse things than that. He could tell by the way that she would start shaking when she talked about that one home. The way that she wouldn't use any names of the people to call it so she would just call it 'the bad one'.

He didn't need to know even _that_ much about it to know that it was a traumatic experience for her. In fact, he knew what would be considered very little about it and he didn't want to know anymore; not unless she absolutely wanted to tell him, which it didn't sound like she did.

What he does want _and_ need to know is how it's affecting her inside her head. How is this hurting her in a way that he can't see? If he knew that, he might feel like he could help her a little bit more. He might feel like he could understand what she's going through a little bit more… but still, he doesn't.

He doesn't know how to ask that, either. So, he'll let it be for now, and let her heal a little bit more _inside_ before opening up and showing him how she's started to fix herself, just like he's known she could.

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He wakes up to the bed shaking like an earthquake is hitting. Startled, he sits up a little bit, before turning to look at Emma. It's not as if he's surprised when he sees that it's her that's causing the bed to vibrate so much. It's a common thing; it happens almost every night.

With a slight feeling of dread, he reaches up and rubs his eyes at the same time as he reaches over and shakes her shoulder, hoping it might wake her up. He tries not to be too violent because he doesn't want to hurt her, but he has a feeling that even just touching her in this state is what causes her to wake up in a panic every time.

To be fair about him continuing to do this, the only reason he doesn't stop is that he doesn't want to leave her to suffer in her terror in the middle of the night when everything from her past is occurring in the present. She sure never does that to him, and even if she did, he could never bring himself to hurt her so badly.

He sits for a few seconds, just shaking her with his hand and silently begging her to wake up until she finally does. With that, one fear of his disappears and another one comes up as he reaches down and pulls her into his arms, his hand on her back and over her hair.

"Hey, hey, calm down. They can't hurt you anymore," he whispers as he hears her begin to start hyperventilating like she does after almost every single one of these dreams. She clutches onto him as he slowly moves over, gently lifting her off of the mattress and maneuvering his body around so that she's on his lap.

She won't let him go. She shakes violently, still, his hands over hers and her eyes screwed shut. Her jaw is somewhere between a point in which her chin can still waver but it's set and locked at the same time. He knows what this is and he knows exactly how to fix it.

Slowly, he moves his hands so that one is resting on her back. He uses that one to lower her down slowly as he moves over to her side of the bed. Within seconds, her head is resting in his lap as he starts combing through her hair, quietly humming a song and holding her hand.

It doesn't take her a long time to fall right back asleep, and he's stuck with the task of trying to wrestle her back into her spot on the bed without waking her up. Yet, he's okay with that because he's just glad to know that finally, once again, she's not in any pain as she sleeps.

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 **I hope you enjoyed. Thank you for reading!**

 **This is the prompt I used or this story- "Hey, hey, calm down. They can't hurt you anymore."**


	3. Coffee Stains

**Hi, guys! I'm sorry I missed updating yesterday, I had homework and by the time I could write it was just too late and I was too tired. I'm going to try to update these on time from now on, to make sure I can I'm going to try to write a few ahead on the list right now because I have time. Thank you and I hope you enjoy!**

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Emma slowly walked over to the couch in Neal's apartment. "You know, you can't just sit there all day," she starts, handing him a hot cocoa that she picked up from downstairs. "It's not the world's fault that Tamara dumped you. The economy needs you. Get up," she says, taking his hand and pulling him up from the couch.

She goes over to his little kitchen area of the apartment, or at least she starts to before he walks in front of her so she can't look in. "Stop, let me see. I'm not letting Henry in here if your sink looks like it's in a state of post-apocalypse ness," she says and moves his arm down from her way.

She's greeted with a pile of dishes, almost a mile high right beside his sink on the counter. She twirls around and stares at him wide-eyed. "Okay, so I've been procrastinating," he says, scratching the back of his head as Emma walks back into the living room placing her coat down on the arm of the couch before walking into his bathroom to assess that scene, as well.

He sighs as she inspects his apartment thoroughly before walking back to the kitchen. "Okay, that'll take a while. Do you have a speaker set?" she asks and he nods before walking over to the closet and taking it down from the shelf up in it, where he strangely keeps the things he doesn't use too often.

She smiles and takes it before plugging it into an outlet in the wall before putting her phone into the line-in and setting a playlist and walking back to the sink, beginning to rinse off the dishes and load the small washer.

He watches her in a bit of curiosity. Emma's a strange figure, in the way that she likes to do things a certain way, which probably means that she already has a game plan for the entire apartment. "Anything I can do to help?" he asks and she nods, turning around to look at him before scooting over a little bit and beginning to help her.

She smiles at him every once in awhile, just side-eyeing him and smirking a little bit as she scrubs a dish and looks away before placing it in the dishwasher. He sighs as he catches her doing it again and stops scrubbing before turning so his whole body is facing her. "Why do you keep looking at me?" he asks and she smirks, placing something in the dishwasher.

She then puts her hand down on the edge of the counter in front of the sink and leans against it. "What, am I not allowed to look at you?" she asks and he shakes his head, dropping a plastic cup down into the sink before turning back to her completely.

"You are, I'm just wondering why you're doing it," he states and she chuckles and then looks down at the ground and smiles, turning back to the sink and dishwasher and beginning to scrub the dish that she's picked up.

She puts it in the dishwasher before she even starts speaking about the matter of her looking at him so much. "It's nothing…I guess I just thought that out of the two of us, I was the messy one, not you," she says and laughs a little bit before continuing to do the dishes. "Given that, I've stained pretty much all the seats in the bug," she says and he laughs, nodding a little bit.

They both stop after a second and he looks at her. "Coffee," he says and she laughs at their little joke about the time that she barely spilled her coffee and she had cleaned it right up, but it still stained and she woke him up with her mumbling and rolled down the window and screamed at someone the word 'coffee' as they were walking down the road.

He laughs as he looks over at the wall and chuckles a little bit, smiling as he mumbles coffee once again before they continue with Operation Clean-up Apartment.

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 **Thank you for reading!**

 **This is the prompt I used for this story- "You know, you can't just sit there all day."**


	4. Ikea Furniture

**Sorry, this is a late update! I was out and doing stuff both today and yesterday, but I'll be sure to post almost every day if I can from now on.**

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It's not a rare occasion that Emma has to go calling Neal during the dark hours of the morning to get him to help in some odd situation that would never be occurring if they weren't in Storybrooke. It happens quite frequently, to the point where he's changed his ringtone to the loudest one just for her.

Now, one thing that was, in fact, a rare occasion, is when she would come to his door at midnight without calling. Not only would that be alarming, but it would make him wish that he didn't have to live in such a screwed-up town so he could just eat junk food and watch Friends or House or something funny until four a.m.

But, alas, that's not a right given to anybody that lives in Storybrooke, and especially not one that's given to people like Emma and Neal, who were a part of the 'hero gang'. So, part of him is, but still isn't, surprised when Emma comes banging on his door at the lovely hour of one a.m. telling him that she needed to talk to him about something.

She practically forces him to let him in, first, even though it's not like he wouldn't have in the first place, and then she starts ranting. "So, there's an issue with Regina and Zelena, something about a Sniglar, so we might be going over there tomorrow," she says and he sighs, walking into the kitchen and sighing, opening a cupboard.

She finds his coat and keys on the back of a chair as if he was either just about to leave or had just gotten home from something. "I'm too sober for this," he sighs, taking down a bottle of hard liquor and pouring two glasses of it. She chuckles but politely declines as she was still at risk of being called into the station.

He sits down in the chair at the table and she follows, taking a seat beside him. "And just what on earth is a Sniglar?" he asks as he takes a sip of the drink. "It sounds like something from Ikea," he states before looking back up at her.

She shrugs and looks over at him, playing with the cup that he had set in front of her even after she declined. "Knowing those two, it probably is," she states and takes a sip of the liquor, not knowing what else to do with it seeing as it was already poured and sitting in front of her.

He sighs as he takes yet another sip of the drink and they both fail to say something about the silence, or anything. He looks up at her until she catches him staring and sighs, shaking her head and laughing at him quietly. "Just think, we might be getting called to Regina's house tomorrow to build a table with her," she states and he laughs, looking over at the window.

"That'll end well," he chuckles and she nods, looking at the table and making a face for a minute. "They'll never call us to build anything again," he says, smiling from ear to ear. She nods, snorting a little bit and taking a sip of the drink in front of her.

She tilts her head to the side, smiling at him softly as she watches him just stare at her. "Well, I have to go and possibly walk in on my parent's now, so…" she says and he smiles nodding as she stands and he follows suit, leading her over to the door. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow," she says, kissing his cheek as she walks out the door. "Goodnight, Neal," she calls, halfway down the hallway, just to piss off his neighbors.

"'Night, Em," he replied, watching her turn the corner as she leaves before chuckling and re-entering his apartment, no longer to deal with any more problems with Sniglar until the morning.

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 **Thank you for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this one- "I'm too sober for this."**


	5. Public Speaking

**This might be one of my favorite ones so far, not only because I'm pretty sure I made up a new thing, but because I tried my absolute hardest to be slightly humorous. I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, I haven't had the time. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this.**

Neal puts his hands down on the desk, sighing a little bit as he stands at the front of the room in the giant convention hall. Emma had dragged him along on one of her Legal-nerd conventions for Sherriff's and people that aspired to be like them, and this was his least favorite part.

The room where he was forced to stand in front of a group of people in uniforms or wearing badges, and introduce himself like everyone else would be required to do throughout these few days. Emma had gone before him to show him what to do, and had answered every question on that form thingy that they were given affectively.

He was sure not to be much like her, mostly because she was more of a public speaker and by no means was he adept at it. He would stand and just stammer or ramble on for ten minutes until people would be drooling and snoring in the back of the room and Emma would be covering her face with her notepad.

He turns and looks at everybody, trying to smile as best he can even though he's facing a room of at least 500 police officers in front of him. In a past world, this would've been his worst nightmare, and now… well, now not much has changed, either.

He looks across the room and smiles a little bit as he looks at Emma, who's smiling at him and gives him an encouraging nod. "Um, hi," he starts, looking at one officer who could probably kill Neal with his bare hands and he takes a breath, turning his head to look back at Emma, who probably could do the same to that other guy.

He smiles at her and it sticks this time, as he looks throughout the room. "I'm Neal Cassidy. I'm from a police station in a town called Storybrooke, it's in Maine, and no, you've never heard of it. I- uh, I'm not teaching any of these classes or things that are being taught, and I'm not a sheriff, but my best friend is, and I'm a deputy, so, um… that's why I'm here, she made me come," he says and everyone chuckles a little bit.

He looks across the room at all of these scary people and in an effort to lighten the mood, he starts speaking a little bit more. "I see that people are about to pass out, probably because we all just got here yesterday, and to be honest, that's probably what we're all feeling on the inside right now, so I'm gonna go and sit down now," he says and everyone starts laughing.

He looks at Emma as he steps down from the little podium thing and walks down the aisle, sitting down beside her as the next person steps up and begins to speak. "You were great! A little bit snarky, maybe, but great," she says and takes his hand, looking up at the podium.

He turns his head to look at her and he moves closer to her ear. "Well, then. It's a good thing that I'm not here to make friends," he says and kisses her cheek, moving back but still holding onto her hand. He moves back after a minute. "And, for the record, I would've come anyway, even if you didn't make me," he says and she smiles as she looks back at him.

She reaches over to her and kisses her cheek, looking over at the stage as the last person steps down and she smiles, picking up her backpack and he does the same as she stands and takes his hand as they attempt to walk all the way off to the top floor of the hotel.

She takes his hand after separated as they attempt to book it upstairs to their next class. Neal stops and pulls Emma to a halt at one point in the hall. "Peppermints. Here," he says, handing her one before beginning to walk again, finishing with the idea of standing in front of people and now, thinking about how he was going to take notes in his next class.

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 **Thank you for reading.**

 **Prompt for this chapter- "I'm not here to make friends."**


	6. Holiday Homes

**Hi, guys! Sorry, I haven't updated in a few days, I've been a little bit busy this weekend. Anyway, here's a story that I wrote because I was inspired to write by last Thursday when it snowed in central Texas for the first time in six years. Enjoy!**

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She barely even remembers how she brought herself to leave. It all went by so fast. There was a fight between her and her boyfriend, then she went to work. At work, she used a tracker to find Neal's address before making plans to go and find him there.

The rest of it was fuzzy. She remembers running home to get her stuff while her boyfriend was at work, and then going back to her office to turn in a letter of resignation before getting in her car and getting out of there as fast as she could. Now, here she is, driving in the dark, in the rain while it's almost cold enough to be snowing outside, and she knows that she can't go home. She doesn't have a home anymore.

She looks down the street and sighs as she turns on the radio, only to find that her boyfriend, or rather, ex-boyfriend, Alex, had changed the station to Christmas music while he was driving. She immediately clicks off the radio, once again, and she looks up the street at the road that's beginning to curve.

She shakes her head slightly, forcing herself to snap out of the haze that she's in and she focuses on the road… and then, she doesn't.

She can't help but think about where she's going. What if Neal has a family? What if he left her simply because he never wanted to see her again? She doesn't know _any_ of these things, and yet, she's still taking a chance… some, very, very risky leap of faith, going to find him. Well, at least risky for _her._

She looks over at the sign that says she's entering his town- Portland, Maine. It's far away from where she was living with Alex, but it's not so far that she couldn't make it. It's been six hours since she left; six hours since she did anything besides eating and driving. Or, maybe just driving?

It was all blending together, all of the things that she'd done in the day, and she was unsure of what she had left unaccomplished when she left. Had she remembered everything at home? Surely not, given that most of the things that were her's in that house were also Alex's. She felt bad about taking them, so she had ultimately decided just to leave them there for him.

She lets out a long and heavy sigh as she turns the radio back on and changes the station, a song that she likes coming on, which encourages her to begin humming the lyrics of the song mindlessly as she looks down the street. When she gets to a light, she throws on a sweatshirt to keep her warmer before she continues to drive down the streets.

It was getting harder to see out the windshield, given that it was beginning to fog up and if she didn't fix that soon, she wouldn't be able to see out of it at all. Reluctantly, she turns off the fans in the car blowing the warm air in so that it will clear up before she turns it back on.

She smiles as she looks down the street and sees a sign indicating that she was there, finally. She was in Portland and by the looks of it, only a few minutes away from Neal's house. Ten or fifteen minutes at most. She chuckles a little bit as she sees the sign and realizes why he might've moved here.

Neal was a big Christmas lights fan. He always had been, he'd make her drive up and down the streets with him in the car while they were in Oregon and he'd just stare at all of the lights. This wasn't far from what would probably be considered heaven in his eyes. The signs were lit up on the outsides of all the neighborhoods. Some of the trees were wrapped in lights, whether they were pines or not.

She smiles a little bit, knowing that that longing feeling to be close to him had come back and hopefully she had done the right thing giving into that. She looks at the paper with his address on it when she gets to a red light and memorizes it so that she won't have to whenever she's closer.

She looks up and down the streets as she gets to the places with houses and apartments until she finds his street. She turns down it, looking for the number address on the paper. She looks at the house and she can definitely see that Neal's been there- it looks like Santa threw up on the lawn.

He looks at the car in the driveway. It was a truck, a Ford… probably something that Neal would get. He was never much for the fancy small cars. She looks up at the doorstep. What if she was right? What if he _did_ have a family now? One that he didn't feel like sharing with her?

"It's kinda late for that," she told herself out loud before opening her door up and going up to his front porch, taking in a deep, deep breath before knocking. She hears footsteps approach the door, just one set, by the sound of it (thank god) and she waits for whoever it could be to open the door.

She's greeted by Neal, standing, looking absolutely the same and staring at her in awe. He doesn't even say anything at first, he just steps forwards and pulls her in for a bone-crushing hug. "I- What are you doin' here?" he asks, smiling and chuckling a little bit, watching her.

She chuckles a little bit, looking anywhere but his face, trying to avoid eye contact. "Yeah, um, that's a funny story, actually- but, uh, I need a place to stay," she explains and his face pales before he puts his hand on her arm and looks at her, who's staring at the ground.

Then, before he does anything else, he moves to look into her eyes and he puts his other hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asks her sharply and she nods, looking at the tiles in the entryway to his house.

"I'm fine, just cold," she says and she looks up at him as he looks at her with uncertainty. "Really, I am. I'm not hurt… quite opposite of that actually, I can't feel my hands," she says and he chuckles, turning around and closing the door and walking with her to her car.

He helps her take her suitcase inside, along with her backpack. Inevitably, he mentions how she barely brought anything with her and she had to remind him that she's always been a light packer.

Once they get everything inside of the house, they set them beside the couch in his living room and he smiles at her, leading her into the kitchen as he starts to make hot cocoa. He notices in the middle of it that she's still shivering and he goes around the couch while the milk is heating up, grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around her shoulders. "Thanks," she chuckles, sitting at the counter on one of his stools.

Over time, Emma warms up and he gets them both hot cocoas to drink after being in the cold for a while before it's time for bed. Emma asks if she can stay with him and he agrees, letting her bring her suitcase into the bedroom to change and she changes into warm pajamas before laying next to him.

She moves over, getting wrapped up in his arms and smiling a little bit before snuggling up next to him and closing her eyes. "How are you doing? Better?" he asks and she nods, letting him kiss her head before they both slowly start to fall asleep in the heated apartment.

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 **Thanks for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this one- "I need a place to stay."**


	7. School Dances

**This was inspired by the school dance that I went to a few days ago and realized that the parents have to chaperone, not the teachers. I hope you enjoy this!**

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Emma sighs, plopping onto the couch and cuddling up next to Neal. "I'm gonna kill her," she mumbles into his sweater as he wraps his arm around her. He smiles a little bit as he looks down at her, putting his arm on her shoulder.

He begins to rub his back with her other hand while she moves around so that she can be laying flat down. "Who?" he asks brushing her hair out of her face as she tilts her head and rests her chin on his chest in order to talk to him better. "Regina?" he asks and she shakes her head as best she can.

"My mother," she sighs and he laughs, knowing that this story is gonna be good, given that she never threatens that unless Snow's done something deliberately. "She volunteered me to chaperone Henry's school dance on Friday," she mumbles, putting her head down on his chest.

He sighs, realizing that this story isn't as funny as he thought it might be. She'd been planning something for Friday. While he had known that, he hadn't known that she was planning that. "That sucks, Em. I'm sorry," he mumbles, putting his hand flat on her back and reaching down to kiss her forehead. "I wouldn't want to do it either," he whispers and she chuckles a bit.

She smiles softly, looking up into his eyes and smiling. "Well, that's tragic," she starts, beginning to draw circles on his chest with her pointer finger. "Because I've already signed you up," she states and he looks her in the eyes, shocked, before relaxing a little bit.

He nods, tilting his head to the side. "I'm fine with that, actually," he tells her, looking into her eyes and chuckling a bit. She tilts her head to the side, a bit confused as he just said that he doesn't want to do it, either. "Well, we still get to spend the evening together, right? Just not in the way we had planned it," he tells her and she smiles, nodding and turning her head, listening to his heartbeat underneath her head.

He smiles and reaches down to kiss her head, pulling her closer to him, therefore, holding onto him tighter. Just then, Snow comes walking through the doors. "Henry's still at school, he has extra math homework to finish up in study hall," she calls from the kitchen and Emma smiles, standing up and taking Neal's hand, dragging him to the breakfast bar.

Neal wraps his arm around her after they've both gotten up onto the stools and he smiles at Snow as she turns around, handing Emma a hot cocoa. She looks at him funny as she mixes the other one. "What's up, Neal?" she asks and he shakes his head, looking at her and chuckling.

"Nothing. I just wanna say thanks for giving us an excuse to go and watch Henry have fun on Friday night. We were gonna do something else, but it's almost worth it to not get to do that now," he says and Emma smiles, watching him. Snow looks at him, in shock as she passes him a cup and Emma smirks at her.

She looks back and forth between Emma and Neal and she looks absolutely stunned. "How are you happy about that? Nobody wants to chaperone the dance's at the school..." Snow asks, tilting her head to the side and staring back at Neal while she takes a sip of her own drink.

He shrugs, looking back at Emma. "Easy. I get to spend time with Emma and I get to make sure our kid isn't getting into trouble, all the while embarrassing him. What's not to love?" he asks, giving Emma a kiss on the cheek before reaching down and picking up his cup and taking a sip out of it.

He smiles as Snow shakes her head and brings her cup to her lips. "No wonder you two love each other. You're both so strange," she whispers, gulping down the rest of her drink so that she could run back out the door to go and visit David at the sheriff's station.

Emma smiles as she looks back at Neal. "You shocked her," she says, in complete awe. Normally, Snow could pick up on most things before they even happened. For a second, Neal just nods and thinks that Emma's pissed, before she smiles and reaches over, giving him a giant high-five and looking over at the door.

Snow walks back in, grabs her coat, which she had forgotten, while staring at Neal the whole time, before running out the door and letting it slam behind her. Both Emma and Neal break into hysterics before going back to the couch where Emma ends up taking a nap on Neal's shoulder.

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 **Thanks for reading!**

 **This is the prompt I used for this story- "Well, that's tragic."**


	8. Cars and Pajamas

**Hi! Sorry it took a few days to update this, I've been a little bit busy with school and I like to have a few chapters written in advance, so I currently have up to prompt ten done, but I have to still write prompt eleven before posting prompt nine. It's a strange system... anyway, I hope you enjoy this!**

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Emma puts her hand down on the cart in the middle of the store and she sighs, looking at the different cars and truck toys. Roland is growing into the point in his life where the bigger cars that younger kids use were getting too babyish for him and he needs to get some that are more like the ones that Henry used to use.

If only he didn't still use his, which Roland would be all over whenever Regina would take them down from the attic. She looks over at all the different kinds of cars. There were remote controlled ones, there were ones that made noises whenever they were moved, there were other ones that were wind-ups and other kinds that you would pull back and release and they would go shooting across a table.

Her eyes land on a bright yellow one that lights up when it's moved and she smiles, looking over at it and stepping forward to take it down from the shelf when Neal calls her suddenly and successfully scares her to the point where she almost drops the toy car. She has to catch it after having thrown it up in the air slightly and she looks over at him.

There stands her boyfriend, smiling from ear to ear and holding a dinosaur toy that would growl whenever you press a button on it. "Oh my god," she exclaims, looking over at him and putting Roland's toy into the cart. "You're seriously like a man-child. Have you ever heard of acting like an adult?" she asks and he chuckles, putting the dinosaur back on the shelf.

He shakes his head as he walks back over to her and she continues to search the wall for something that Roland would like for Christmas. "These are for Roland, right? Not your brother?" he asks and she nods and looks over at the other side of the wall. He hums a bit, beginning to scour the wall in search of something for their sort-of nephew together.

He puts his hand over hers and she looks over at him, wondering why for a moment before tightening her hand over his. He leans in and gives her a kiss on the cheek, leaning back when she jumps up and half runs towards the wall. "He likes Iron Man, not Superman, Em," he tells her, stepping forward and placing his hands on her shoulders.

Her shoulders droop in disappointment as she steps back to allow anyone that might try to pass through the aisle space, but no one else has come through in the entire time that they've been standing there.

Neal pulls her back to him, wrapping his arms around her stomach and resting his head on her shoulder. "Maybe we should keep looking for other people and we might find something. I saw some nice pens earlier when we were passing the office aisle that I think Henry'll like," he tells her, talking softly so that he's not screaming in her ear.

She sighs in defeat and nods. He lets go of her and takes her hand as she puts both of her hands back onto the cart and begins to walk out of the aisle and into the next one. He puts his hand on her shoulder as she stops in the aisle on the other side of the other one and scans the wall, looking for legos for her brother.

Neal smiles, watching her as she just stares at the wall, not certain what she's looking for. "These?" he asks, stepping forwards and pointing at a certain green box of jumbo legos that her mom put on the list for her baby brother, who's just learning what to do with puzzle pieces and legos.

She nods and smiles as he grabs the box and places it on the bottom of the cart. "How much are we supposed to get everyone?" he asks and she shrugs, looking over at the end caps of the aisles as they leave the toy department and move on to the pens, in the process passing the boy's clothing aisle.

Neal stops as they're about to pass all of the boy's section and move past the girl's clothes section. Neal smiles at her as his eyes light up and he walks over, finding a pair of pajamas that look just around Roland's size, and better than just looking like they might fit him, they even have the Superman logo on them.

He looks at her pleadingly, out of complete love for his nephew, and she nods as he walks over to her, throwing them into the cart and giving her a kiss on the cheek, smiling happily. Emma smiles as they start to walk to the pen aisle, where they need to go to get the present for their son.

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- 'You're seriously like a man child."**


	9. Ice Cream Beds

**Well, this is one of my favorites so far. I hope you guys enjoy it!**

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Emma walks upstairs, Neal following shortly behind her with a bowl of ice cream in hand. "I have to go change. Do what you want, just please don't sit on the bed with that," she begs before walking off into the bathroom with her pajamas.

After a long day of crying and being in pain, both Emma and Neal were at a place where they were emotionally and physically stable enough to go to bed. This was good, given that Neal had spent a good chunk of his day writhing in pain and Emma had spent the better part of her day crying about it, even once it was over.

So, now, after having sat on the couch in each other's arms for a good hour and a half, they have decided that it's time for bed. That was when Neal also decided that he wanted to eat chocolate ice cream, to which Emma rolled her eyes, but didn't hesitate to let him know that there was some and that was on the top shelf in the freezer.

That's what led to him walking up the stairs and deliberately sitting on the bed, even after she told him not to. He knows he won't spill it, which is the only reason that he would even consider sitting on the bed with the white sheets while eating chocolate ice cream.

That fact, however, is not enough to convince Emma that letting him sit on the bed with it is a good idea; especially when she walks out and sees him holding it and smirking arrogantly. "All right, that's it. Get up. There's a desk up here for a reason," she says and he chuckles, resting the bowl down on his lap but still holding it in his hands.

"Really? I thought it was just there to look good," he says back. She rolls her eyes, only smiling a little bit, but not nearly as much as he had hoped she would smile. She takes the spoon from him and raises her eyebrows, trying to prove to him that she wasn't afraid to take it away. "Seriously? You can't banish me, this is my bed, too! Well, at least for tonight it is," he states and she shrugs, taking the bowl from him.

She walks over to the desk and places it down. "Yeah, it is. Still, you can't eat ice cream on a bed. At least, not a bed that I'm gonna have to wash the sheets on later," she states. He sighs, smiling at her and going to sit at the desk and she walks back over to the bathroom, beginning to brush her hair.

He takes a bite of his ice cream and he puts his hand down on the desk and smiles as he looks at the wall, pretending that he can see her through it. "It's a good thing I love you, Emma," he calls and she smiles at herself in the mirror, brushing through her hair with the comb.

Emma places the brush back down on the counter and looks over at the wall, smiling a little bit and pretending that she can see him, as well. "Yeah, it is," she says back, resuming the action of combing through her hair once again and this time, smiling from ear to ear. "I love you, too," she states and he smiles, closing his eyes as he puts the spoon back in the bowl of ice cream.

He stands up, walking into the bathroom and standing behind her, looking at her in the mirror and shaking his head. "When did you stop wearing your glasses, ya knucklehead? You need those," he states and she shakes her head, putting her hand down on the counter along with the brush.

"A long time ago. I don't need them anymore," she states but he just shakes his head, putting his hand in front of her eyes. She closes them gently as he reaches over and takes her pill bottle out of the cupboard. "I'm not gonna read that," she states as she opens her eyes right back up again and sees the bottle about an arm's length away from her.

He sighs, shaking his head but not rolling his eyes as he puts the meds back into the cabinet and gives her a kiss on the cheek, slinging his arms over her shoulders. She smiles as she reaches up and takes his hand in hers, looking at their reflection in the mirror. "I'm glad you're okay," she says quietly and he nods, kissing the top of her head.

"I am, too. I'm not gonna leave you again, not for anything," he tells her and she smiles, closing her eyes and leaning back against him a little bit. "Never," he whispers and she smiles, her eyes opening once again as he removes his arms from around her shoulders and takes her hand, making her come to bed rather than spend her time doing silly things like brushing her hair.

So, this relationship might not be perfect. There are many things that could definitely be improved, but for now, the best thing to keep in mind is the fact that they're both okay. The best thing, though, is the fact that they both realized just how much they loved each other; enough to cry over each other, enough to be in pain over each other, and enough to spend time taking care of each other.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- "You can't banish me, this is my bed, too!"**


	10. Small Children

**Hello, people of the universe. I'm here, I've written tonight, and I need to go to bed. I'm not home this week so I don't know if I'll post. I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

The conversation starts late in the afternoon, just as they're driving around and trying to find someplace to get some more water bottles. They see a little kid, maybe a four or five year old out with his family.

Neal smiles, but Emma doesn't seem to have any sort of reaction to it as she continues to find the bag of trail mix, which is essentially assorted nuts and chocolate, more interesting than the adorable little boy playing with his parents. "Hey, Em, did ya see that?" he asks and Emma looks up, nodding before continuing to look through the bag for one specific thing.

He looks back at her, curious, and tilts his head to the side. "What, you don't think it's sweet?" he asks and she shrugs, shaking her head and turning back to her little trail mix bag. "Why not?" he asks and she squints her eyes, leaning back against the back of her chair.

She switches hands a few times while she's holding the trail mix as she talks. "I don't know. I guess it just doesn't mean anything to me," she mumbles, taking something out of the bag and starting to chew on it.

He glances over at her, for the most part keeping his eyes on the road as he thinks about what he should say to that, or rather, how to ask her to elaborate on that subject. "Why doesn't it mean anything to you?" he asks and she sighs, leaning back against the window a little bit.

She looks over at him, putting her hand back in the bag and grabbing out something else from it. "I don't want to have kids. It doesn't mean anything because I'm not going to have that," she says and he almost slams on the breaks, his shock is so severe.

It's not like she's a person that would definitely want to have kids. She's not one of those people that you can just look at and determine that she wants her own children. But, she's not the opposite, either. He'd have thought that after all her time in the system, she'd want to have kids and she'd want to keep them.

Neal looks over at Emma, his hands tightening in grip around the steering wheel. "What do you mean, you don't want to have kids kids?" he asks and she shrugs, looking up and him and taking an almond out of the trail mix bag that she was eating out of.

She chews on it as she talks. "I dunno. I guess I just don't. I've never really had a mom, I don't know how to be one. Besides, babies are a lot of work," she states, taking out some other random unidentified thing from the bag and eating it.

As he looks at the road, Neal sits in shock while he continues to try to talk about it with her. Yes, he loves her, but he also wants a family. He wants a chance to be a dad to somebody. "Which is why people say things like 'the ladies love a guy that's good with kids' and 'guys being nice kids is adorable' and stuff like that," he tells her and she nods, shrugging and looking back at the street.

She sighs and shrugs, shaking her head once again and looking back at him. "I never said I didn't want kids, I said I didn't want to _have_ kids," she says, looking out into the street at all the cars passing by there's and he notices, speeding up a little bit. "I'm fine with adopting. I guess it's just me knowing that if I do, one day, have kids and they're mine forever, I get to be responsible for half of their problems," she explains and he chuckles a little bit.

She looks back up at him, realizing what might've been her mistake in all of this; telling him. "Are you okay with that?" she asks and he nods, looking out into the road. While he didn't know that she didn't want to _have_ kids, she did know that one day, he wants kids. He never specified in what way, but he had mentioned it and she remembered.

He reaches over and takes her hand, pulling over into a parking lot, which gives them a few minutes to talk. "I just want kids. I don't care how, Em. And, if I get to do it with _you-_ well, that's even better," he tells her, putting his hand on her shoulder and smiling at her.

She's getting teary-eyed at this point, and to be honest, it makes him happy that he was able to make her feel good about what she wanted. "It might even be better. Family is a funny thing, there are lots of different ways to be someone's family. If it's adoption, though, we get to help someone," he tells her and she smiles, nodding.

He wipes away the few tears that she had shed, kisses her on the forehead, and then begins to drive off once again to try to find the place that they were trying to get to.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- "The ladies love a guy that's good with kids."**


	11. Journal Entery

Emma drops her phone onto the couch, sighing and flopping down onto it, scooting over so that her head is in Neal's lap and she's looking up at him. She just lies there, staring up at him until he finds her more interesting than his book and he marks the page, setting it down on the side table and beginning to comb through her hair with his fingers.

He looks down at her, smiling a little bit. "Well, that was dramatic," he states, looking down at her and rubbing his hand across her forehead once again. "'Dear diary, today I threw up three times and managed to avoid doing it on any living things,'" he states, making her groan and roll over so that her head was buried into his stomach.

He makes a face, putting his hand on her shoulder, the other one on the side of her head. He knows that if he wasn't able to make her laugh, she much probably be feeling pretty bad. He slowly moves his hand so that it's going up and down her shoulder, rubbing it slowly. "Do you wanna go to the doctor?" he asks, but she shakes her head as best she can.

She never wants to go to the doctor. He should've known better than to ask, because unless it would prevent people from taking her seriously, she would not want to go to see Whale. He looks down at her, slightly concerned as he can feel the heat from her face on his stomach.

He runs his fingers through her hair slowly, looking down at her. "Does it hurt, or does it just feel nasty?" he asks but she doesn't answer. Instead, she buries her face further into his stomach. He lets out a short grunt before relaxing completely. "I'm calling Whale," he states, reaching over and picking up his phone.

Emma sits up a little bit better, slamming her hand over his copy of To Kill a Mockingbird so that he won't be able to reach his phone, which was placed directly beneath it. He looks over at her and sees the fear in her eyes. "I'll ask if he can make a house call, but Em, you need to get checked out," he tells her, brushing her sweat-soaked hair out of her eyes.

She slowly moves her hand back and he smiles at her, allowing her to move back to where she was before he dials the hospital's phone number. She looks up at him anxiously, hoping that Whale says he can come. She knows, even while her mind is clouded with illness and medicine, that Neal _will_ get her to a doctor whether or not they were coming to them.

Emma tries to pick up bits and pieces of the phone call as he continues to talk to Whale. "No, that's too late. You need to come now," he states and she listens as Whale debates with him over the other line until Neal sighs and hangs up the phone.

She looks at him nervously and he looks at her apologetically, helping her to sit up. As if on cue, she bolts into the bathroom and locks the door behind her before rushing to the toilet and losing what little amounts of water and medicine she had ingested that day.

As she finishes, practically collapsing against the cool bathtub wall, she hears Neal pounding on the door and calling for her to let him in. She undoes the lock with her magic and he rushes in, putting his hand on her back and reaching up to flush the toilet. He looks at her, breathing shakily in fear almost as bad as she is.

Her face is already red and streaked with emotionless tears just as they become something uncontrollable and she starts shaking with sobs. Immediately upon registering what's happening, Neal pulls her against his chest and closes his eyes. He doesn't say anything, mostly because he doesn't know what to say.

After a few minutes, she starts coughing again and he leans back, leaving his hands on her shoulders. "Look at me, okay?" he asks sweetly, rubbing her arm up and down slowly. "Whale can't come, apparently he's not allowed to right now because of some rule," he states, breaking his sentences apart slowly to give her time to understand. "I'm gonna take you to the doctor's office. I'm not going to let them hurt you," he tells her and she nods, leaning back against him.

Slowly, he manages to get her up and take her back out to the car and all the way to the hospital for Whale to take care of her the right way.


	12. Eli

**Hello, people. I've written up to chapter 15 so far and this is just chapter 12, but I'm planning on continuing to post throughout the week instead of just posting them all at once. Thank you so much for reading these, it means so much to me. Also, if you could continue to comment that would be great, I love to read your comments! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Neal walks into the Charming's loft, smiling at David, who's standing at the counter and smirking. Neal hangs up his backpack and coat on the rack before walking into the living room further.

Snow smiles at him as well, before walking into the kitchen. He follows, not knowing where Emma is. He assumes that she's someplace in the loft, either getting ready or going to the bathroom or something like that.

He sits up at the counter, on the stool. "Would you like a hot cocoa, Neal?" Snow asks and he nods, thanking her and looking around the loft. "Emma isn't here right now," she giggles, noticing the glancing around he'd been doing since he got there.

He looks over at her, squinting his eyes a little bit. They had plans for that evening. They were supposed to leave town and go to look at foster homes. Emma was looking to adopt and he was going, not only to help her limit herself and not adopt _everyone_ but for moral support.

Now, though, their plans might be ruined. They needed time to plan stuff that they couldn't plan in the car. They were going to the first home right when they got there, before even going to the hotel or anything. They hadn't yet looked through the envelope of files that she wanted him to help her dig through, and that was what was probably most important.

David snaps Neal out of his thought with a short statement. "She's hiding behind the sofa." Immediately, Neal looks over and finds Emma sitting up, hugging her pillow. Her hair was a mess and she looks exactly like she should- like she's about to go and sleep in a car for 4 hours.

Emma looks from Neal to her father, laughing but seemingly disappointed. "Dad!" she groans, climbing out from behind the couch cushions and walking over to Neal. "He was supposed to find me on his own," she states, moving over to his side and nudging him gently.

He moves his arm around her shoulders and her parents both hold a direct gaze with them before Snow breaks the tension, as if with a knife, and hands both Emma and Neal some hot cocoas. "Thanks," Neal says, taking it and taking a big sip of it. He had spent enough time with the Charmings to know that, while Snow likes hot cocoa, she's not a fan of burning herself on it.

Emma walks over to the other side of the counter, grabbing a very familiar manilla envelope and a sheet of notebook paper with names scribbled on it in a very cursive-like handwriting. "I wrote their names down and scratched out a few of the ones that I'm not okay with," she explains, handing him the paper.

He nodded, taking the list and pairing each name with a profile. He noticed a pattern as he moved on with each name. One would think that the children that would appear to be more difficult, or older, would be the ones that would be crossed off of anyone's list, but no, not Emma's.

The ones crossed out on her's were the cute little young kids that didn't seem to have any other problems than needing a home. She had all the 'problem children' left over; the ones with mental illnesses, the ones with physical disabilities, the older ones that had never been in a stable home, the ones that were beaten senseless. Almost every single one of those kids was still on Emma's list.

He didn't think he'd been happier to know a person like her before. He was in love with her, as simple as that. She was absolutely sweet. She wasn't one of those people that only wanted the kids who had been raised right with no parents. She wanted to be the one to raise them.

He wraps his arm around her, kissing the base of her neck once softly. She smiles, wrapping her other arm around him. "Do those sound like sane choices?" she asks and he nods, looking up at her before pulling her over to be able to kiss her head.

"Absolutely."

* * *

Over the next few days, they have to spend time at many different places, most of them holding at least one of the kids on Emma's list. Neal sat with her and lots of little kids as she played with them. She would sit and color with the little ones, help the older ones with their homework, and she came to the rescue for the kids that needed or wanted anything else.

There seemed to be one particular child at one of the homes that seemed to shadow Emma. If she went to go and do a puzzle with a little girl, he would go and simply just sit to watch. If she was coloring at a special table, you could bet good money that he'd be there too, coloring with them or doing something nearby.

He didn't talk to them. He let them be, but it seemed that he might have felt safe with Emma; like she was his real mother.

Then, Neal watches as about four hours in, Emma turns to the little boy. "Hi," she greets him warmly, not wanting him to be scared of her. She doesn't get close to his face and she doesn't touch him… well, at least not until he touches her.

He reaches forward and puts his hand on her knee, possibly trying to say that he wants to sit on her lap. She picks him up, giving him a place to sit on her knee. "Can you get his file out?" she asks, and Neal opens the envelope, looking for a child that resembled the boy, but found nothing.

He tilted his head to the side and stood, walking to the front desk to grab it. He picked it up and brought it back to her, letting her look at it. "Mental illness undiagnosed," she reads aloud and he closes his eyes, shaking his head. She looks down at him and smiles as he moves forward to her.

He puts his hand on her arm and she smiles at him, giving him a short hug. "What's your name, sweetie?" she asks, given that his file didn't even have his name on it. It was still filled with the 'insert name here' box.

He looks up at her and he smiles, taking her hand and playing with it. "Eli," he says quietly and Emma smiles, looking down at him while he plays with the promise ring on her right ring finger.

She moves her hand, catching his attention. "I like that name," she tells him, tickling his chest and making him squirm but giggle a little bit. "What do you like to do, Eli?" she asks and he looks up at her, playing with her hand but not answering. In fact, he'd barely responded.

She rubs his back a little bit and he leans against her more. She smiles at him, kissing his head and looking at Neal. "Can you get the forms?" she asks him and his eyes widen as he smiles, nodding and squeezing her shoulder before rushing off.

She looks down at Eli to find him staring at her. "Are you taking me home with you?" he asks and Emma nods, taking his hand and smiling a little bit before he leans back against her. "Can I have a bedroom?" he asks.

Emma nods, not at all phased by this as she knew that lots of kids in the system don't get a real room. "Yep, you can even have your _own_ room," she states and he shakes his head, looking up at the drawings on the wall and smiling.

Emma smiles at him as he starts talking once more. "No, please. I want to share," he tells her and she smiles, nodding a little bit and rearranging him on her lap a little bit.

"I can make arrangements," she tells him. He nods before holding her tighter and falling asleep that way.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **The prompt that I used for this chapter- "She's hiding behind the sofa."**


	13. Baby Siblings

**Yay, I'm on a role. For anyone who likes Henry and little sibling type stories, this one might make you happy. I hope you enjoy!**

Emma walks through the door of the house, looking around for Neal or Isabella, but neither of them is anywhere to be found. She looks around the living room and in the kitchen but she can't see either of them.

She stands at the railing and puts her hand on her hip, the other one resting on the rail. "Neal?" she calls and she hears footsteps come running down the stairs. He puts his hand on hers, still standing on the step, and he smiles worriedly at her. "Hey," she starts, but he starts talking at the same time.

His hand shakes over hers as he speaks. "Hey, so, um… I can't find Bella. I know she's here, 'cause I heard her crying, but-but she's not in her nursery." Stammering, he attempts to explain what happened to his wife and she looks at him like he's insane.

Emma sighs and drops her bag, shrugging her coat off before following Neal up the stairs. "I can't believe this, Neal," she tells him and he nods, following her as she walks down the hallway into the nursery.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I lost our baby. I _suck,_ " he admits and she nods, going in and double-checking the crib in the middle of the room before beginning to look under all of the pillows in there and in the closet, which was closed so she doesn't really understand why she'd bother to check there.

She sighs, looking around the room some more, in any baskets and underneath the crib before she goes into the master bedroom. She checks under the bed first, and then in the bathroom, before looking around the room some more.

It's then when she starts to get extra, _extra_ frantic. Storybrooke is known for having villains that enjoy stealing other people's children, but that's not even the worst part. If Isabella was outside without a coat or a blanket on, she'd be way too cold. She's not even a year old yet, she's not big enough to outstand the freezing temperatures of a winter in Maine.

She groans as she doesn't find her child in the hall closet and she moves onto the hall bathroom and doesn't find her there, either. She skips Henry's room, knowing that he's never taken enough interest in his baby sister as to allow her in his bedroom. He's always been a neat freak like his father and he knows that if he'd allow her in, she'd mess things up.

Instead, she goes right downstairs and checks everywhere, hoping that her child hadn't fallen down the stairs or anything like that. She was still so little, even if she was around nine months old at this point, and if she had fallen, she might not be able to withstand and hit to the head like that one.

She plays with her hands as she walks around, looking for the kid but not being able to find her. Emma then sighs, covering her hands with her eyes and wiping them of the tears that have started falling. She then walks over to the kitchen window looking out into their backyard, like she always does when she's freaking out, and she sees Henry there, sitting in the backyard on the swing with the baby on his lap, slowly going back and forth.

Emma looks at them, smiling as Henry holds onto his little sister. The sweet part of that is the fact that Henry's a sixteen-year-old boy. He could be out with friends, or driving, or doing schoolwork, but instead, he's hanging out with his baby sister. Emma's eyes tear up once again.

Neal comes up next to her, staring at her. "Hey, did ya find her?" he asks and she nods, moving over a little bit and moving over so that he could look out the window. He looks out and he relaxes visibly as he looks over at them.

He moves closer to Emma and puts his arm around her shoulders and she leans against him, smiling a little bit. "Well, she was safe," he tells her and she nods, looking out at them. Henry looks up and makes eye contact with her, smiling and taking Isabella's chubby little fist, helping her to wave at them.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- "I lost our baby."**


	14. Pirate Ship Naps

**Hello, people of the internet. I've written a few chapters ahead, up until 18. I'm just trying to get as many written as I can at a time so that when I do update, I have content to post later if I can't write but need to update.**

 **Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!**

Emma walks over to the steps of the ship, slowly moving to sit on them with a metal cup filled with water in them. She looks across the ship at Henry and Neal, who have taken a giant blanket and leaned against the inside wall of the ship and are currently sleeping on each other.

She smiles, watching them from across the ship until something, or rather, some _one_ came in and obstructed the view. She looks up to see who it is and finds her mother standing, in the process of walking over and going to sit down beside her.

Emma smiles at her and takes a sip of her water, scooting over so that her mother would have space next to her. "Are you watching them?" she asks, nodding over to Henry and Neal. Emma nods, smiling affectionately, looking back at her mom.

Snow nods, looking over at Neal and Henry. "They look like they've known each other forever. Makes me wish they had," she mumbles and Snow nods, looking over at them once again. "Do you think that Neal's gonna wanna stay in Storybrooke now that she's gone?" she asks.

Snow looks over at her and smiles, putting her hand on her leg. "Sweetie, I think he wants to be here. He wants to be with _you,_ he can't have that back in New York," he tells her and she nods, looking down at the ground and sighing a little bit. "Do you want him to go back?" Snow asks her gently and Emma shakes her head violently, looking back at Snow.

"No! No, I don't. I just… things with us before, they moved… _really fast._ I don't know if I want to do it that way again but I don't know if he'll want to go any slower and I _really_ want to be with him," she mumbles and Snow nods, pulling her daughter in for a hug.

Emma smiles as Snow gives her a kiss on the cheek before leaning away. She looks back at where Henry and Neal were sitting before looking back at her. "Hey, did you see Neal get up?" Snow asks and Emma looks back over there, shaking her head.

Snow puts her hand on Emma's back. "No, did you?" she asks and Snow shakes her head, looking back at Emma as her daughter begins to panic. "Where did he go then?" she asks and Snow shakes her head, looking around in the crowd of the lost boys and everyone else.

Still, they don't find him anywhere and Snow puts her hand on Emma's back as she begins to hyperventilate, rubbing it in circles. Then, another hand goes to Emma's shoulder and she jumps, not wanting to turn around to find Hook or some lost boy. "They're so cute when they're asleep, aren't they? We did a good job on that kid," she hears someone tell her and she smiles, turning around and giving him a hug.

Neal rubs her back a few times, leaning back and kissing her head. "It's okay. I just wanted to bring you something to eat, I haven't seen you have anything in a while," he tells her, handing her a plate and smiling at him.

Snow gets up and walks away, leaving her spot and Neal takes it, moving to sit next to Emma. "So, I wanted to talk to you about the plan when we get back. Did you still want me to stay, or should I just go home, or like… just, what do you think I should do?" he asks and she smiles, turning to him and looking up, setting the plate he had handed her down.

"I think you should stay," she tells him and he smiles, looking down at the ground to avoid awkwardness. "Neal, I-I wanna be with you," she reveals, smiling and he looks up at her, smiling and not saying anything. Instead, he just pulls her into his arms.

When he lets go she smiles at him and puts her hand on his, looking him in the eyes. "I do, just… I don't- I wanna go slow. We can't do what we did last time, it's just not gonna work," she tells him and he nods, looking back at her and smiling.

"Yeah, whatever- whatever you need. I'm good with that, whatever you need, that's what we'll make happen," he tells her and she nods, smiling a little bit. "I just want you to be happy, Emma," he tells her and she smiles, nodding a little bit.

He then stands, getting ready to go back over to Henry when Emma stops him. "And Neal?" she calls, getting him to turn around and look back at her in question. "You can call me 'Em' again," she tells him and he smiles, pulling his fist down in victory before turning around, smiling super-wide.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading, again!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- "They're so cute when they're asleep."**

 **Also, if you want to follow my tumblr, my username is the same there as it is here!**


	15. Their Home

**Okay, so, I just finished writing and editing chapter 19 which I think is my favorite so far. Anyway, I'm gonna go and write some more. Also, this chapter is super short, so sorry. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!**

Emma looks around the room, shaking her head and wiping her eyes before getting out of bed. She walks into the living room, then to the kitchen, to find Henry at the table and Neal at the counter, making a cup of coffee.

She looks around for a second before taking a seat across from her son and fake smiling at him. "Hey, Mom. I gotta go, I'm gonna be late for class," he tells her, standing up and throwing his backpack over his shoulder. He walks over to her, giving her a quick hug and kissing her cheek before standing up and leaving.

Neal says goodbye to him as he walks out the door to their new home and Emma smiles as he does before he turns around and looks at her. "It's too early to be awake," he states and she nods, rubbing her eyes once again. "I'd kill for a coffee… literally. If I don't have some in the process of being made in five minutes, this coffee maker will die," he tells her and she smiles, standing up and walking over to help him.

He steps out of her way and walks over to the fridge, taking out a bag of blueberry bagels. "You want one?" he asks and she nods, hitting the coffee machine a few times after having put in the grounds to make it. "Cream cheese or butter?" he asks and she smiles at him, giving him a look that told him that he _knows_ what she wants without her having to say anything.

He nods and takes out the cream cheese, spreading some on both pieces of bread before handing it to her. She smiles at him, grabbing plates down and walking over to the fridge to get out some strawberries and whipped cream. "Let's pray your mom doesn't walk in. She might have a heart attack if she sees that this early in the morning," he mumbles and she smiles, putting some whipped cream on her hand and wiping it on his nose before putting some on both of their plates.

Within a few minutes, Neal has his coffee and Emma is fully content with drinking some of it and eating her strawberries and whipped cream and her bagel. "Why are we required to get up at the buttcrack of dawn so Henry can get ready for school on his own and then walk to the bus stop alone, too? He doesn't need our help with doing stuff on his own, right?" Neal asks and Emma shrugs, taking a sip of her coffee.

"I just like to get up to make sure that he gets to school on time and in case he needs help with his homework. You don't have to if you don't want to, Mr. Grumpy-Pants," she explains and he shakes his head, looking out the window before looking back at her.

He finishes taking a sip of coffee before beginning to talk again. "No, I like getting up with you. I feel bad getting up so much later, especially when you're up this early with him. Also, it means I get to have breakfast with you," he tells her and she smiles, nodding and blushing a little bit. He puts his hand over hers and she looks up at him, tilting her head to the side.

"I'm glad I have you to have breakfasts with again," he tells her and she nods, looking at him and smiling before getting more whipped cream on her hand and wiping it on his nose once more. "Okay, maybe not _too_ much," he tells her and she smiles, putting his hand on hers and shaking his head after wiping it away. "I'm kidding. Really, though. I'm glad we're back together again," he states and she smiles, nodding and him.

She stands and goes to put her plate in the sink before walking back to him and giving him a hug and kiss on the cheek. "I have to go get ready for work. I'll be back in a minute," she says and he nods, kissing her hand before watching her disappear back up the stairs and to her room.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- "I'd kill for a coffee... literally."**


	16. Breakfast at Granny's

There is absolutely no real reason why Neal invites Emma over that afternoon and they both know it. For a while, she debated over whether or not she should go before deciding that it would be nice to get to see Neal for a while and get away from the crazy that was her parents. Her mother's almost to her due date and the anticipation was making both of her parents stressed beyond belief.

So, that's why she ends up getting in her car at nine o'clock the next morning and driving to Granny's. She pulls into the parking lot like a crazy person and parks almost immediately before hopping out of her car and running inside to avoid the cold, wintery Maine weather.

She shakes some snow from her hair just before looking over at the desk to find Ruby, standing there and looking at her like she'd be in trouble if she says anything to Granny. "Don't tell your grandmother?" she asks and Ruby nods. Emma nods back before straightening out her jacket and walking over to the desk.

Ruby looks up at her and smiles, continuing to rifle through papers. "Did Neal leave a note for you? I was supposed to go talk to him about something," she states and Ruby nods at her, handing her a slip of paper. She walks out to her car and puts the parking pass on it, even though she shouldn't have much trouble with a fee, seeing as she is the sheriff.

She then walks back, shakes more snow from her coat and looks back at Ruby. "Never again," she states. Ruby makes a face and nods before Emma walks back inside and up the staircase, looking down the hall and going to the door.

She knocks three times and then two more, which used to be kind of like their secret knock that they did on the window to be safe, and she assumes it's a perfect example of 'old habits die hard' if she's having so much trouble not doing it every time she goes to his room.

Whether or not it matters, the door still opens and Neal welcomes her in. "So, have you had breakfast? I was just about to go down to get something to eat," he tells her and she shakes her head, smiling as she waits for him to grab his key. "I can take your jacket if you want," he offers and she nods, taking it off and he takes it, hanging it up.

He opens the door for her and she smiles shyly at him. "Thanks," she mumbles and he nods, smiling reassuringly at her which proves that he thinks this is going well so far. She moves over and takes his hand as they walk down the hall, which causes him to look at her like she's crazy. "What?" she asks and he chuckles as they make their way down the stairs.

When they get to the diner, for once in a very, very long time, not everybody there looks up at Emma and silence doesn't impede upon them. She smiles and they walk over to the counter. "Hey, Granny," he calls and she looks up from the coffee maker, walking over to them. "Can we get some lemon french toast and… cinnamon swirl cake?" he asks, looking over at Emma.

She smiles and nods as he looks back at Granny. The old woman nods at him, writing it down and looks back up once she's done writing that. "The usual drinks for both of you?" she asks and both of them nod, letting her write it down before sending it to the kitchen. "So, how are you two doing?" she asks.

Emma tilts her head down and shoots Granny a pointed look. "Granny, we're absolutely fine. Just talking. Can you please make that face at Leroy?" she asks and Granny sighs, nodding an walking away.

Neal laughs, wrapping his arm around her. "What's wrong with Granny asking how we are?" he asks and she shakes her head, rolling her eyes. "Oh, she's done that _before,_ possibly to another person that you were _talking_ to?" he asks and she sighs, rolling her eyes once again and nodding. "Well, how about we get it to go and end her pestering then?" he asks and she smiles, nodding. He calls Granny over once again and asks her to change their order to 'to go', which she does with pleasure.

* * *

Once their food comes, they make their way upstairs and go to sit on the bed. "So, how are you?" he asks, taking his own piece of bread out of the bag. "Your parents drive you crazy yet?" he asks and she tilts her head to the side.

She looks up at him, taking a sip of her drink before placing it on the chest at the end of the bed. "If I hear them discussing baby names one more time they will have," she murmurs and he laughs quietly, nodding and taking another bite of the cinnamon bread. "But besides that… yes," she says and he laughs, nodding.

He looks up at her and watches her for a second, causing her to look at him funny. "Just- here," he states, moving the paper bag their breakfast came in to in front of her. "You're getting crumbs all over my bed," he chuckles and she tilts her head to the side, laughing a little bit as well. "So, uh… I see not much has changed," he tells her and she laughs, shaking her head.

He looks up at her, smiling a little bit before she hands him a napkin. "I might make a mess with crumbs, but you have frosting on your nose," she tells him. He tries to rub it off, but can't seem to get it as it doesn't come off. "Lemme see," she says and he lets her take the napkin away, wiping off the icing from his french toast off of his nose.

He blushes as she sits back down and puts the old napkin in the plastic bag. "What, are you shy now? You weren't earlier," she tells him and he smiles, shaking his head and looking down at the pattern on the comforter. She knows that look, the one in his eyes. He wants something and he's afraid to ask it. It's probably this, knowing him. He probably wants to talk to her more and doesn't want to ask.

She smiles at him, taking his hands and getting him to look up at her. "Hey, I'm excited about this, too," she tells him. He smiles, reaching over the stuff in front of both of them to hug her. "I'm glad I came," she mumbles and he nods, looking up at her.

"Me, too, Em."


	17. Night Shift

**Hello, people of the universe. I've been writing more than posting, so, sorry for that. I'il try to start doing that more. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Emma walks into the Rabbit Hole, walking over to the bartender. "Hi, I was called here. Something about a fight?" she questions and he nods, looking up at her and scrubbing down a glass mug.

He sets the mug down on the counter and looks somewhere behind her. "Yeah. Some of the waiters and waitresses are over there with the guys, wanted to make sure they don't run off and try to drive in that state," he states. Emma nods, turning around and looking at where he was motioning.

She sighs as she realizes that one of the people he was pointing at was Neal. She closes her eyes and looks back at him. "The one in red started it. Apparently, he was messing with some girl that left. The one in blue tried to stop him. I dunno who won or anything like that," he explains and she tilts her head to the side, nodding and walking over to the table that they're at.

Neal looks up at her and makes a face, realizing that for the time being, she was there as the sheriff and not his friend. She smiles at him, a silent 'I'm sorry' to try to make up for him possibly having to spend the night in jail tonight. The other guy looks up, as well, but then holds her gaze.

She sighs, taking out the handcuffs from her belt. She turns the other guy around, putting his arms behind his back and linking his wrists together before slapping the handcuffs on. The big, scary waiter comes over and watches him while she got Neal too. She can feel him wince as she put them on his wrists and she whispers an apology.

She smiles softly at the waiter and thanks him before leading both of them out to the cruiser. She doesn't say anything to them the entire ride; the only noise that can be heard is the guy in the backseat who got into a fight with Neal quietly whispering sarcastic comments in his direction.

Once they pull into the station parking lot, she takes both of them out to the holding cells and takes them in. First, she takes care of the guy who was hopefully the one who was guilty so that she would be able to talk to Neal afterward and then she goes over to Neal.

She could feel the other man, whose name is apparently Nathan, staring at him. She leads Neal out of the cell closer to the outside wall of the station, and she has him stand near the desk like she the other guy. "You okay?" she says quietly, trying not to disturb the guy in the cell.

He nods, looking up at her. "Yeah, just a little sore," he mumbles and she nods, looking at the bruise under his eye and the big cut on his forehead. "I'm sorry," he whispers and she looks up at him from the first aid kit on the desk.

She shakes her head, handing him one of those ice packs that you just have to crack and they get cold. "It's fine. This is one of the few jobs that I actually signed up for when I became sheriff," she tells him and he smiles at her a little bit, putting the ice pack on his forehead. "Nothing else hurts, right?" she asks as she takes out the peroxide and puts some on a little piece of gauze.

He shakes his head, confirming her statement. "Nope. You know why I did it, right? They told you?" he asks and she nods, looking at the cut on his head. He nods, but she stops him in the middle of the second nod and holds his head in place. He looks up at her as she starts putting the peroxide on the cut.

He winces as she touches it for the first time but she holds his head in place, still, not wanting him to move away and hurt it even more. "They did. I think it would've saved you a lot of legal trouble to just have stayed out of it. I, personally, feel like the big scary waiter would've taken care of it," she mumbles and he rolls his eyes a little bit as she hands him another piece of gauze to stop the bleeding.

He puts it on his forehead as she reaches down and looks at his arm, which seems to be bruised, too. "Well, then, it's a good thing I didn't ask for your opinion," he mumbles sarcastically and she smiles at him, dabbing his forehead with a cloth to get rid of the extra peroxide from the other fabric.

Just then, as if on cue, her father comes marching into the station. "Hey, I got the call, too. You weren't working tonight, why'd you come?" he asks and she shrugs, putting her hand on Neal's shoulder as he winces away once again. "Well, I went by and checked the security footage. Neal can go, he was clearly defending that lady, but that other guy… Nathan something, he was clearly _not_ , so he's stuck here for a while," he explains and Emma smiles, nodding a little bit.

David then walks over to the table, helping Emma by taking the other handcuff off of Neal, which she had used to get both him and the other guy not to run off while she was fixing them up. "As for you, Neal… I'm glad you care about people so much, but what you did today, that's the owner's job, and if not his then it's mine," he explains. Neal nods, looking a little bit foggy and as his hearing is muffled as he'll get out, he just agrees, despite not understanding.

David looks up at Emma and shows her Neal's wrist, noticing that the handcuffs had cut one of his wrists and it was beginning to bleed. She slaps her hand over her mouth and her eyes almost well up as she reaches over and puts some gauze over that, as well. "So, Neal. You can go home, I just don't recommend being alone or driving tonight. Do you want someone to drop you off at your father's?" he asks.

Neal shakes his head as Emma takes care of his wrist, trying to stop an infection from occurring and the bleeding from continuing. "No, I promised I wouldn't go back until nine o'clock tomorrow morning," he tells him.

Emma looks up at him as she wraps his wrist with some elastic bandage and gauze. "You can come with me. The house is too quiet right now, anyway, with just Henry and I," she tells him and he nods, looking down at her as she finishes wrapping up his wrist. After she sets the scissors down, he wraps his arms around her.

"Thanks," he mumbles, turning his head to smell her hair. He lets go, still smiling at her and he puts his hand on the side of her face. This is her dead giveaway that he had had _something_ to drink earlier because he would normally never dare to touch her in a way that wasn't a simple hug or pat on the back.

She shakes her head, looking up at him and smiling. "No problem. After all, we did promise to take care of each other."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- "Good thing I didn't ask for your opinion."**


	18. Late Nights

**Hi, guys. I messed up my pattern of writing like six stories ahead for this but it's better to have five than none so it's fine. I hope you enjoy this chapter, thank you for reading, and please read and comment a number on the note at the end.**

* * *

Emma sits down on the bed, sighing and closing her eyes before reaching over and pulling out her book. She's working on _Paper Towns_ and _To Kill a Mockingbird_ at the same time, which is a problem because she can't remember what's happening in either as she switches back and forth.

She sighs, looking around the room and standing. She walks over to her desk and grabs her little stack of sticky notes and a pen, writing out a little note to herself. ' _Write what happens…'_ it reads in her messy handwriting. She sticks it on the cover of her book to remind herself what to do before she begins reading once more.

She tries sitting on the bed, and then on the edge of the bed, at her desk, the floor, in the closet, and even on the counter in the bathroom before she resigns to just pacing back and forth across her room, not allowing herself to stop reading just because she can't entertain her legs well enough by sitting.

It takes a while for her to get bored of the book, but when she does she takes the note, turns to the back of it, and writes down what she had read in that sitting down on the paper. She then sticks it on the inside of the book, on the page she's on, and closes it.

She sighs, walking over to her bed and sitting down, just staring at a wall until she hears a short rustling noise coming from the bedroom beside hers. She looks at the wall between her and the other room in confusion for a second before getting up and walking over to the other room.

She knows that Neal's been staying in there for the past few days. She's the one who _invited_ him to stay there. Not one night before this has she heard any noises coming from that room before though. She tries to think about why he would be up so late as she walks over to the room, but she can't think of any reasons until she gets there.

Then, she looks through the door, which is creaked open and sees the light on, with him sitting on the bed and wiping his face with a tissue. She can only assume that he's wiping away tears, so she opens the door a little wider to make her presence known. "Hey," she starts, opening the door up. "You okay?" she asks, looking over at him and waiting for a response.

For a while, she doesn't get one. He just stares at her. Then, after a few long seconds of dead silence, he begins to cry, probably not for the first time that night. She takes a second to think about what he wants her to do before she decides to just go over to him anyway.

She walks slowly, not wanting to make it worse. When she gets there, she slowly moves down to the bed and takes his hands, moving them away from his face. "Oh, Neal. What's the matter, sweetie?" she asks, but he doesn't say anything, he just continues to sniffle and sob, trying to avoid eye contact.

She reaches up, wrapping her arms around him. He returns the hug, holding onto her much tighter than she is to him. It's as if he was waiting for her to do that. For a minute, she doesn't quite understand what's happening, until she thinks a little harder and realizes something.

This is what this was supposed to be before. This is what was supposed to happen after she found him in New York, and there is no doubt in her mind that it would've if it wasn't for Tamara coming in and making them stay apart. They were supposed to have one of these moments and just get stuck with each other again, but they never could.

Now they are.

She smiles a little bit, hugging him tighter before leaning back. She wipes away his tears, keeping her hands on the side of his face before reaching up to kiss him on the forehead. "You okay? What's wrong?" she asks as she leans back and he shakes his head, trying to indicate that he doesn't want to tell her.

Emma, being the stubborn person that she is, doesn't give up that easily. "Come on. People don't just start crying for no reason. What's going on?" she asks. He looks down at the blanket, showing that he's probably embarrassed, if not scared that he'll start crying again, or even worse; both.

She takes his hands back, which causes him to look up at her in question. "You can tell me. Whatever it is, it can't be any worse than what I was thinking," she tells him quietly and he looks back down at the comforter, back up at her, and then down at the blanket once more.

She looks over at him as he takes in a deep, doubling breath, preparing to speak. "I had a nightmare," he mumbles and she looks up at him, wanting to offer up a comforting smile but she knows that he might not take that the right way. "It was a bad one… It was sad. I don't wanna talk about it," he tells her.

She nods in agreement, not asking any more questions about it. "I'm sorry," she whispers under her breath and he nods, shrugging a little bit and looking back down, almost like he's about to get just as sad. "You need another hug?" she asks and he nods.

She smiles and leans forward, wrapping her arms around him tightly and he does the same, returning the hug with just as much enthusiasm as before. When she lets go, it gets quiet and awkward, making her sigh. "Do you want me to stay in here with you? Or do you want to come to the other room with me?" she asks and he looks up at her, confused and clearly not understanding what she means. "I mean, not like _that,_ but… just in case it happens again. So you're not alone," she offers.

He nods, smiling at her. She looks up at him, smiling as he moves over, giving her space and turning the light off. As he settles down under the covers, she realizes that he's not planning on cuddling up with her like they used to. This disappoints her a little bit, but she remembers that he tends to think like her and he might think that she doesn't want to because she didn't make the first move.

So, instead of just sitting and feeling sad, she moves over to his side of the bed and cuddles up beside him. It takes her a second to find where her head used to go and where her arms went every time, but when she did it was like nothing she had felt before.

It was like going home.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- "What's the matter, sweetie?"**

 **I got this list of questions from findingtallahassee on Tumblr and I wanted to do it, so if you have a question about one of the chapters on here or any other story of mine, just comment the chapter and I'll answer as many questions as you want. Thank you! (P.S, I want to do this so please please please comment)**

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

2: What scene did you first put down?

3: What's your favorite line of narration?

4: What's your favorite line of dialogue?

5: What part was hardest to write?

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

7: Where did the title come from?

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

11: What do you like best about this fic?

12: What do you like least about this fic?

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn't listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?


	19. Lunch Date

**Sorry, I haven't updated in a few days, I've been a little busy. This is a spin on the whole date thing from 3x10/3x11 in which Emma actually showed up. Thanks for reading.**

* * *

Emma walks into the diner and over to the table that she could see Neal sitting at; the one that they both normally ended up taking. She taps him on the shoulder after noticing that he's looking out the window and not to where he'd be able to see that she's there.

He jumps a little bit and looks up at her, a smile creeping onto his face as he realizes that it's her that's there, not someone else. "Hey," she greets, going over at sitting across from him in the booth. "Sorry I'm late, there was a thing I had to check out by the beach," she tells him and he nods in understanding as she takes off her beanie and sets it down in her lap.

He looks up at her and smiles, looking away before she could catch him. "What?" she asks, seeing the odd mix between a blush and a smile on his cheeks. "Is there something that I missed?" she asks and he shakes his head, wrapping his hands around the mug in front of him before looking back over at her.

She smiles, shrugging and taking her coat off, setting it beside her in the booth. "So, um… I've got something to tell you-," he starts, looking down at the table and back up at her when she interrupts him.

He catches her in the act of brushing her hair back, which makes her statement sound a lot more innocent and less hurtful than it might've been if he was thinking about the wrong thing. "What, you're Satan?" she asks, looking at him and smiling playfully.

He just chuckles, shaking his head and reaching over, looking at the menus. She can see the nervousness in his eyes as he begins to speak again. "No, um… do you need a menu? I think you do, doesn't everyone? Granny's always changing up the spe-" she cuts him off mid-sentence, reaching over and putting her hand over his.

He looks up at her and she looks at him with concern in her eyes. "Neal, what's going on?" she asks softly and he shakes his head, looking down at the coffee in front of him. His mind wanders and he finds himself wondering why he hadn't put cream in it, but then he remembers that it's because he got it how Emma likes it for some odd reason; but somewhere under the sporadic thoughts that he was coming up with, he's panicking.

It takes him a few seconds to come back because his mind is so far gone that he can barely feel her hands covering his. "Neal," she calls, waving her hand in front of his face and he looks up, smiling a little bit at her as he forgot what he was going to say. "What was it that you had to tell me? It sounded important," she tells him, trying to keep his gaze but his eyes danced around the room nervously.

She waits patiently, though… or at least as patiently as she can. There is a point, after a few seconds of that, when she looks up at him sighs heavily. "It's nothing. I shouldn't have said anything. I wasn't planning on doing it, anyway," he tells her, but she shakes her head and looks back up at him.

She leans back a little bit, her hands still on the table but she had gone just far enough back that she hers weren't touching his anymore. "No. Whatever it is, you were thinking about it. I know you, you wouldn't've even _begun_ to tell me if you hadn't thought about it," she proves and he looks back down at the table, sighing a little bit.

He looks back up at her, then down again, as if he can't bring himself to look at her; as if he's scared. As he speaks, he reaches over and takes her hands. "I was thinking about going back to New York," he tells her quietly. He knows that Ruby is the fastest way to spread the news through Storybrooke and he's not planning on doing that today.

Emma pulls her hands away as if his touch had burnt her and a quiet gasp escapes her lips. It might've been better just to keep his mouth shut in the first place, but no, he'd come too far at this point. Too far to take that back. "What?" she breathes, her eyes narrowing a little bit.

This hasn't gone the way that he planned. He was preparing for her to be mad, furious, even, and he's sure that somewhere inside her, she is. For now, though, he can't see that. She looks confused, shocked, and many other things, but above all else, just plain disappointed.

He looks back at her, seeing tears beginning to form in her eyes and he starts to speak, but he doesn't act fast enough. Before he can even blink, she's up and walking out the door. He takes a second to comprehend what just happened before standing and following her.

He gets to her, just barely, and he takes her by the arm, causing her to stumble back a little bit and it breaks his heart seeing tears falling from her eyes and hearing her breaths come in doubles. "Emma," he says, getting her to look up at him as he stands in front of her. "You know that I wasn't planning on moving here. This lasted _weeks_ longer than I thought it would," he tells her and she tries to pull away from him but he stops her again, his grip tightening on her arm just enough to get her to come back over to where he's standing.

Emma looks back at him, beginning to look angry and he knows that he's really done it as he sees the rage begin to build. "Yes, I know you weren't planning on staying! Any person in their right mind would know that, but you know what? I still hoped that you _would!_ I love you! I don't know what I'm gonna have to do to get you to understand that," she states, pulling her arm away and beginning to walk away.

He runs to catch up with her, cutting in front of her once again. She rolls her eyes and stumbles back a little bit. "Yeah, I know. Hear me out, _then_ I'll let you storm off," he tells her, looking into her eyes, putting his hand on her arm. "You remember the part where I said I didn't think I was planning on doing it? I'm not. I'm really, _really_ not. I wanted to stay here with you and Henry," he tells her and she looks up at him, wiping her tears away in fear that they might freeze to her face, given how cold it is.

He smiles at her, looking her in the eyes. "Em, I'm not planning on going anywhere. I'm _really_ not. Sweetheart, you're just gonna have to believe that," he tells her, putting both of his hands on her shoulders.

At this point, the tears have begun once again and aren't stopping anytime soon. "How can I?" she asks and he looks her in the eyes, seeing the fear in hers and letting her see the concern in his.

He smiles at her, putting his hand on the side of her face. "Because I love you, too." With that, he wraps his arms around her and she practically collapses against him, her arms going around him, as well. He takes her jacket from where it is in her hand and wraps it around her.

After hugging her, he realizes that she's shivering and then he sees just how cold she is. He leans back, letting go of her and through her shivering manages to get her jacket on her and also his. "Now, let's go and finish our date, huh?" she suggests and he smiles, nodding and taking her hand and leading her back to the diner.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- "You're Satan," (I took it out of context, tried not to offend anyone.)**


	20. Not Alone

**Hey, guys. I haven't posted in a while. For those of you who follow Both of Us, I'm going to start that back up again as soon as I get the chance. Thanks for reading!**

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Neal looks over at Emma, sighing a little bit as she attempts to walk to the door of her hospital room in order to leave. She isn't supposed to do that, and she knows it. She had been yelled at so far by almost every member of the hospital, including every nurse on the floor and six other volunteers.

There's also their family, who has been scolding her about trying to leave the room for the past two days. She had fallen in the woods, which doesn't sound too bad until you hear that it was over the edge of some random _cliff,_ and that's when it begins to sound more serious. You know that it means business when even Mr. Gold, Neal's scary, seemingly cold-hearted father, told Emma that she needed to be careful.

So, he stands up from the hospital chair and walks over to her, walking in front of her and picking her up, throwing her over his shoulder. "Hey! Put me down!" she all but shrieks at him. He begins to carry her back over to the bed, but she sneakily manages to wrangle her hand free and give him a wet-willy.

He groans in disgust, looking over at the wall, sighing as she tries to kick her way out of this mess, but can't manage to with the boot on her foot. "Ha-ha," he says dryly, laying her down on the bed and using a tissue to get the spit out of his ear before throwing it away in the waste bin beside the bed.

He looks over at her pouting on the bed before grabbing his chair and pulling it over to where it would be right beside the bed. "Okay, here's the thing," he says, taking her hand and looking up at her. She looks over at him and rolls her eyes, sighing loudly.

"Your family loves you. All of them, Henry, your parents, me, _my_ parents, Gideon, your brother- _everyone._ They all know that you didn't plan on falling from a high cliff and breaking your foot and doing god-knows-what to your wrist, but doing _this,_ trying to escape whenever you possibly can isn't helping them," he tells her and she sighs, tilting her head to the side and pulling her hand back.

He looks up at her, moving to sit on the bed across from her. "Look, you don't have to do this, okay? Everyone understands that you don't wanna be here, but neither does anyone else. We've all been in the hospital at some point, and the difference is, we didn't try to get out using various different dangerous methods," he says sternly, looking up at her.

She sighs once again and looks down at the bed sheets, this time not in frustration or as an act of defiance, but softly, like she regrets what she has done. "I just wanna go home," she mumbles weakly and he nods, moving over to be next to her and he wraps an arm around her. She leans over, resting her head on his shoulder.

He looks down at her before looking out at the door and closing his eyes. "I know, but that doesn't mean that you can try to escape and give people wet-willies, especially the latter. That's nasty," he tells her, wiping at his ear towards the end.

She picks her head up, looking up at him. "I know," she sighs, looking over at the door behind him and then back at him. "But, in my defense-" she begins, but he shakes his head.

He puts his hand on her arm, and this time, he's the one that sighs loudly. "I don't wanna hear your excuse. You can't just go around giving people wet-willies, it's like a universal rule," he tells her and she laughs, wiping her eyes because of tears that she felt were beginning to fall. He reaches over and takes her hand, wrapping his other arm around her shoulders and kissing her temple.

She leans over once again, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm glad you're here," she admits, mumbling a bit. He smiles and gives her a kiss on the head, squeezing her shoulders a little bit.

"Me too, Em. Me too," he whispers. He watches her trying to fight sleep for a few seconds before speaking. "Just go to sleep, Em. I'm not going anywhere," he promises, and she nods, closing her eyes, and within minutes her breathing steadies and he smiles, looking down at her and gently kissing her head.

He moves her around a little bit so that her head is on his chest, as it had been falling back and would've caused her to wake up with a crick in her neck. Her eyes open a little bit and she mumbles something but doesn't protest against it. "It's okay, just go back to sleep," he whispers, brushing her hair back so it's out of her face.

She curls up on her side, closing her eyes and allowing herself to fall asleep then and there, not worrying about when she'd be able to go home or whether or not she'd be alone when she wakes up, because she knows that she won't be.

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 **Thanks for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- "You can't just go around giving people wet-willies."**


	21. Returns

**I have not posted in what feels like months. I'm so sorry. I have basically no excuse. I just didn't want to. Anyway, this chapter is a little bit controversial, possibly, so I just want to say I don't mean to offend anyone. As always, enjoy!**

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Neal opens the door to the diner, walking over to Emma and smiling. "Hey," he greets and she smiles, gesturing to the seat across from her so that he would sit in it. "Guess what I got?" he asks and she tilts her head to the side after putting her cup down.

She swallows quickly and looks up at him, chuckling a little bit. "In trouble with a cop," she asks smugly, looking at her drink. He shakes his head, chuckling and reaching down, pulling something off of his belt. He picks it up and shows her what looks like a handgun and she tilts her head to the side, jumping a little bit in shock.

Neal had always been the kind of person to worry about that kind of thing; guns and violence. He never wants anyone to get hurt, yet he went and apparently got himself a gun. She looks at him in question and he smirks a little bit. "What, not so bulletproof, huh?" he asks and she looks him in the eyes with a death stare and shakes her head.

"No, I'm bulletproof…but, please don't shoot me," she asks, a little bit of fear in her voice and he decides to put it down back under his jacket beside him on the seat.

He reaches over and takes her hand, wanting to show her that he's not gonna hurt her. He knows that she's not _really_ scared of that, meaning that she's not letting it change her opinion of him, but she might, somewhere deep down, be afraid that he might not use it right. "I got it to keep in that drawer next to my bed. Just in case some villain ever tries to kidnap Henry again," he explains and she nods, beginning to understand.

She tilts her head to the side in question once again. "Why didn't you just keep your sword?" she asks and he shrugs, looking up at Ruby as she comes to take his order.

"Just a coffee, please," he asks and she nods, looking at him and back at Emma, as if waiting for something. "Oh! Black please," he asks and she nods once again, this time walking back behind the counter to get it for him.

Emma looks at him, waiting for him to give her an answer to her question about his weapon of choice. "I want to be able to take care of it from far away… and, besides, you can always kind of see a sword coming, but with a gun, you never know when they'll shoot," he tells her and she nods, looking up at him and nodding in agreement.

He looks at her, seeing a little, tiny bit of fear hidden behind whatever other feeling it is in her eyes. He squeezes her hand, looking her in the eyes. "Hey, I'll be careful. I'm not gonna take it out unless I have to, after it's away. I just want our boy to be safe," he tells her and she nods, looking up at him. "I don't want you to worry about it, m'kay? If it does, I'll just take it back," he offers.

She shakes her head, closing her eyes a little bit. "No, it's fine. Just, what if it's not safe? Where did you get it from?" she asks and he nods, looking over out the window at the sign of the shop across the street. "That's where we get ours, too. At least leave the safety on, okay?" she asks and he nods, looking her in the eyes.

He offers her a strange smile that makes her laugh a little bit. "You're the expert," he admits and she laughs out loud, closing her eyes a little bit. He squeezes her hand once more and his smile fades a little bit. "I'll take it back and get a bow from Robin, how about that?" he asks and she nods, looking at him in the eyes.

"It sounds better," she states and he nods, agreeing with her. "I think that's safer," she tells him and he nods, looking over at her as Ruby comes back with his coffee.

She looks between them for a second and Emma shakes her head. Neal looks up at her and nods. "A slice of lemon cake?" he asks and Ruby nods before leaving. "I agree with you. I'll do that," he says and he looks at her in the eyes after Ruby brings it back, not needing to make it.

"Hey," he whispers, looking her in the eyes and smiling. "I'm sorry I scared you when I first came in," he tells her. She shakes her head, looking down at her cocoa and smiling at him.

She takes a sip before responding. "It's fine. I still love ya."

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 **Thank you for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- "I'm bulletproof...but please, don't shoot me."**

 **Also, if you want to, you could go and follow my book account on Instagram bookseclipse. It would mean a lot! Thank you!**


	22. Take Care of Each Other

**I haven't updated this story in a while, I guess... Anyway, here's this lovely chapter. Enjoy!**

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Emma practically runs up the staircase to her room upon arriving home from the station. She's been stuck at work all day, all while Neal has been stuck in her room. He was in a constant state of sleep before she left and she's excited to see whether or not he still is.

She rams into the door before she remembers to turn the doorknob, which causes her shoulder to begin to ache. She opens the door slowly, rather than throwing herself into it, and when she does she finds her mother and Neal both looking at her, rather concerned and very, very confused.

Before either of them get a chance to ask whether or not she's alright, she looks at Neal and her eyes stay on him until her mother moves just a little bit. Emma then looks at her for a while, waiting for her to realize that the two of them need a second and excuse herself. It doesn't take more than a few seconds and she stands, quickly leaving the room.

Emma then unfreezes from where she's standing and moves, beginning to walk in the opposite direction from the one that Neal had assumed she'd take. Instead of sitting in the chair her mother had before she left, Emma walks around the bed and goes next to him. Without saying a word, she flips back the blankets, covers herself up, and practically throws herself at him.

He can feel her shaking a little bit as he wraps his arms around her, as well. He squeezes her extra tight before moving his hand to rub her back. Even this tiny, tiny movement makes her tense up and her grip around him tightens. He moves slower this time and slowly, just as slow as he moves, she relaxes her grip.

It's understandable, why she'd be worried about him disappearing again. What doesn't make sense is why she seems to be mega-worried about it just right now. They hadn't even said anything to each other yet and she's already not allowing him to move.

He manages to sway opinion on him moving slowly, just by moving his hand up and down her back, brushing through her hair and quietly murmuring nonsense to her. He smiles a little bit as she slowly lets go of him, moving so that she's not so close to his face and to give him some space.

She doesn't say anything this time, either, though. She just moves down on the bed, not enough to make a huge difference, but enough to where he can see her face without problem. "Hey," he greets in a whisper, not wanting to scare her and have them go back to square one.

Without smiling back at him, she responds. "Hey," she whispers, looking up at him and then away from him, back at the closet door or at some other unknown part of the room. She waits a couple minutes before speaking again. "Are you okay?" she asks, looking up at him with concern in her eyes.

He smiles a little bit, nodding. She nods once before looking back at the wall, not saying anything. "Are you? You're being quiet," he asks, putting his hand on the side of her head and smoothing her hair back behind her ear, where it should've been in the first place.

She shrugs a little bit, a hint of a miserable expression somewhere behind the fake, blank one she's trying to pull off. It's not even a minute later- maybe seconds- that she breaks down and starts crying.

Neal immediately starts to feel bad, wondering what he did to make her so upset. Was it something he had said? Was it asking if she was okay? Was it saying that she was being a little quiet? He hadn't meant to bother her, he just wanted to make sure she was okay.

To fix it, he pulls her back up just a little bit so that her head is resting on his shoulder- or would be, if she wasn't crying- and he puts his hand on the back of her head gently, not knowing where else to put it. Her arms go back around him; more loose, this time, but still there.

He tries to calm her down by talking to her, just saying random crap that doesn't have any actual meaning, but eventually it works and she calms down, relaxing against him. She lets out a shaky sigh, resting her head on his shoulder.

He continues to rest his hand on her head- the side, now,- and whisper little shushes to her until she's completely silent, just like she normally is when she isn't talking. She looks up at him and tightens her arms around him, closing her eyes once again. He squeezes her extra tight in response.

She smiles, sitting up a little bit. "Are you okay?" he asks and she nods, smiling and leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. "Why were you so upset?" he asks, and her smile fades a little bit. She looks down at the blanket, trying to think of the word to describe it.

It's not the tip of her tongue, but before she can come up with the answer, he gets it for her. "Are you overwhelmed?" he asks and she sighs, groaning and ploping her head back down on his shoulder. "Yeah, yeah, I know," he mumbles, chuckling a little bit. She had always hated when he was able to do that, especially when she knew the word.

Just in time to save Neal from a beating, someone comes knocking on the door before barging in. She lets out a noise and Neal looks at her in shock, much like David does, who had just come walking through the doors, probably expecting to ask something or bring up food, but not to find that.

He tilts his head to the side, walking over to the bed and looking at Emma. "Did you just hiss at me?" he asks. She laughs, as well does Neal, and then David. He rolls his eyes, looking up at the ceiling and nodding, sighing as well. "Well, I came to see what you want for dinner," he states.

Both of the groan before Emma gets up, helping Neal to do so as well and they both end up walking hand in hand down the stairs, not caring that Snow would lose her mind once they reached the bottom.

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 **Thank you for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- "Did you just hiss at me?"**


	23. Workdays

**So, this chapter is pretty much pure fluff, and to be honest, it kinda sucks. And it's short. I'm pretty sure the next one will be better, but I'm not positive so be warned. I hope you enjoy (even though this is crap).**

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Emma opens the door to the house, looking around and sighing. She throws her backpack over the back of the couch and walks into the kitchen to find Henry and Neal standing and talking there. "Hey," she greets as they finish their conversation.

She walks over to Neal and kisses him on the cheek before walking over to the fridge and pulling out a sparkling water. "Hey, kid. I got an email today from your attendance manager. Did you skip school today?" she asks, looking between him and Neal.

Henry looks to his father, a tiny bit of fear in his eyes at what he would say about the events of that morning. "Yeah, um… he woke up with a headache and that resulted in a few… _unfortunate_ things happening so he stayed home and made cookies. We watched the first episode of that show you like, the one about the kids and the bikes," he tells her, taking Henry a cup of what looks like tea.

She nods, looking around the room before smiling and nodding. "Cool," she mumbles, nodding and walking over to Henry. She plays with his hair until he squirms a little bit and hits her hand away. "Kid, they're doing a thing in Portland -not Portland, Oregon, the other one. It's basically a donation thing, so I think that we should probably do it," she explains and he shakes his head looking down at the table.

He looks back up at her as she looks at him in question, knowing that he's done this sort of thing every year with Regina since he was able to go trick-or-treating on Halloween. "Nope. I wanna keep it this year," he tells her. She sighs and puts her hand on her hip, shaking her head.

Neal looks over at him and tilts his head to the side, still unsure what they're talking about. Emma walks around the chair so that she's next to him. "Do you really need all that candy?" she asks and he looks down at the table, pretending to think.

This is a signature Neal-move, so she knows exactly what's coming. "Hmm, do I? Yes. Yes, I do. I have _never_ gotten to keep all of my Halloween candy until Christmas and I do believe that is a vital part of every person's childhood," he tells her and she sighs, looking up at Neal, who shrugs and scrunches his nose up.

Emma looks at him and looks around for a second, _actually_ thinking, unlike Henry had been. "Fine," she agrees, looking at Neal and sighing. She walks over to Neal and smiles, giving him hug. "I need a hug," she says with her voice all muffled by his shirt.

He laughs, squeezing her extra tight. "That's what you're getting," he tells her, chuckling and pointing out the obvious. "How was your day?" he asks, looking over at Henry and nodding as he gets up and points to where the cookies they had made were sitting on top of the fridge.

She shrugs, leaning back and Henry walks over, handing her one of the lemon-flavored cookies in his hand. She smiles at him and gives him a side hug, taking a bite out of it. "There was some drunk guy in the woods screaming about how he was the king of the waffle ninjas at 10:30 this morning. That was all," she mumbles and Neal stifles a laugh, giving her a hug as she looks at him pointedly.

"Sorry, Em. That sucks," he whispers. She sighs, looking down at the ground before back up at him and smiling. "Come on, we can go and watch Stranger Things," he whispers and her eyes light up before she bolts into the living room to grab the remote, turning on the TV.

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 **Thank you for reading!**

 **The prompt I used for this chapter- "Do you really need all that candy?"**


	24. Hospital Hours

Emma's mind wanders as she looks around the room at everyone, everyone exhausted and bored from sitting in the hospital waiting room all night long. They'd been called in at eight o'clock the previous night because her mother had gone into labor, and she had then turned around and gone to get Neal.

She didn't know why she did that. She should've just let him sleep and told him in the morning, but he had mentioned wanting to be there for that and she didn't want to stop him. So, she went to his door, Henry in tow, and practically dragged him out of his room, threatening to leave without him if he didn't find his keys faster.

It took a long time for them to get to the hospital. It seemed like the entire town was on the road that night, in the pouring rain that was beginning to turn to snow, but it was probably to be expected. It was a given that the town would want to be there to see the prince for the first time.

She sighed as the cars came to a stop once again and Henry looked up at her, as well as Neal. She looked over at them before looking back down at the steering wheel. A few seconds went by before she sighed impatiently, once again, and she held the horn down at the car in front of her, who just wouldn't _go._

Henry covered his ears and Neal winced before putting his hand on her shoulder. He didn't say anything, he just rested his hand on her arm, as if just to let her know that he was there. Who knows, maybe that _is_ what he was trying to do, but at the time she hadn't gotten the message. Instead, she continued to honk her way through the traffic until she pulled into the hospital.

She looked around the waiting room as she got there and smiled at a few people that she was close with, that she knew were actually _wanted_ there. Those were the people that weren't holding up traffic, those were the people who were called in for crowd control, or something along those lines.

She went to the front desk and signed in, getting a bracelet to identify her in the case that she was left alone with her brother in the next few days. She smiled at the receptionist before turning around to join Henry, who had been saving seats for her and Neal, who had gone off to the coffee machine.

She set her coat on the armrest of the chair, and as if on cue, Ruby came barging out into the waiting room. "There you are! Get in here!" she all but screamed at her. Emma looked down at Henry, who nodded, silently urging her to go ahead. She followed Ruby, who was running, all the way to the back hall until they got to her mothers room.

When they did, Ruby opened the door and Emma heard some loud, loud weeping coming from her mother. Part of her hoped that that wasn't the only noise she had been making during the contractions, or she must've been a drama queen when she was having Henry.

She peeked her head into the room and Snow quieted for a minute at the sight of her daughter before beginning to sob again, holding her arms out for her. Emma smiled supportively at her mom before stepping forwards to give her a hug. "Hey, mom," she greeted calmly, hoping to help her feel better. "How are you feeling?" she asked, taking her hand.

She was still a sniffling mess and they both knew it, but in this moment, Emma knew better than to point that out. "Not good," she mumbles weakly, leaning back against the pillows. Emma squeezed her hand before looking over at her father, who just shook his head and looked back at his wife.

Emma sighed, looking back at her mom before going right back to her dad, who she had a feeling would be able to answer her questions better than her mother. "How far along is she?" she asked.

He looked back at her, shrugging a little bit before beginning to explain to the best of his ability, "The contractions are still a few minutes apart. They said it could take until tomorrow evening before she's even ready to go to delivery," Emma bit her lip, sighing and looking back at her mother.

She looked up at her mom, who immediately proved that she and Emma were related with one simple statement. "I want ice cream," she whispered tearfully and Emma chuckled, looking over at her father.

He rolled his eyes at the childishness of that statement, but Emma, of all people, knew that her mother would start crying at the top of a hat now, and if there was any possible way for her to eat anything right now, she would be getting her freaking ice cream. "Is she still allowed to eat right now?" she asks and he looked at the foot of the bed, where they'd left a list of what she could eat.

She sighs, looking up at her mom and taking her hand. "Ice cream's not on the list, mom. Do you want me to go and find you a popsicle? That's on the list, I can grab you a bowl and mash it up so it's kind of like ice cream," she suggests and Snow let out a shaky sob and nodded before another contraction hit.

That seemed to be Emma's cue to leave and she practically ran out, going back through the waiting room. "Hey," she said, greeting Henry and Neal. They both looked up at her in curiosity, wondering how her mom was doing. "It sounds like this could take all night, even most of tomorrow. She wanted a ice cream and I have declared myself the food-getter," she explains and Neal laughs, nodding and smiling at her.

She sighed, shaking a little bit, cold, and reached down to get her coat from the chair. "Wanna come?" she asked Neal and he looked at Henry, whose nose was stuck in some book, and nodded, standing and ruffling Henry's hair before following Emma to the cafeteria.

He looked over at her, smiling as she walked over to the line and found the freezer before beginning to rifle through and inspect all the choices. She pulled out a chocolate one before they continued down the line a bit. "Is she even supposed to eat that?" he asks and she tilts her head to the side, nodding.

She handed the checkout lady the popsicle before whipping out her wallet. "It was on a list in her room. She wanted ice cream and it only said the cafeteria's popsicles so I'm gonna find a bowl and mash it up. It's like the popsicle edition of mashed potatoes," she stated and he laughed, walking over to the ice cream bar station and grabbing her a bowl and spoon.

He walked with her over to the table, where she successfully unwrapped the popsicle, used the spoon to get it off of the stick, and then used the stick to mash it up and make it look identical to ice cream. "I don't blame her for wanting ice cream, though. Jeez, if I knew I'd be stuck in a room for hours on end in massive amounts of pain, I would, too," he told her and she nodded, smiling and walking over to the trash can, throwing the stick and wrapper away.

They stood at the table for a minute, not wanting to go back to their assigned 'stations' in separate rooms. She took his hand, squeezing it tight before walking back with him to the waiting room.

She looked at him and smiled as she was getting ready to go back and then looked back at Henry, whom she hugged and then turned to Neal. She smiled at him, getting ready to go back and he gave her a hard, big hug. She smiled and closed her eyes before letting go. "Tell your mom I hope she feels better," he tells her and she nods, beginning to turn around before he calls her back. "Oh, and text me if you guys need anything back there," he tells her and she nods once again, smiling.

She then walked back to the room in the back of the hospital, her hand numb from the cardboard container of fake ice cream. "Hey, guys," she greeted quietly, walking over to the bed and handing her mom the 'ice cream'. "Here ya go," she whispered, pulling the tray over so that she had somewhere to put it.

Snow smiled at Emma and almost started crying again. "One mashed up chocolate popsicle. I, personally, think I did a _very_ good job at making that look like ice cream," she boasted and her mom smiled, reaching over to her for a hug. "Is it good? _Kinda_ like ice cream, at least?" she asked and her mother, nodded, her eyes a little wide.

She smiled at her, putting her hand on her arm and giving her a kiss on the head. "Neal said he hopes you feel better," she told her and Snow smiled, beginning to stir the spoon around in the ice cream. "He also said that he'd want ice cream, too," she announced and Snow laughed a little bit before wincing.

* * *

The rest of the night went the same, with Emma finding any possible excuse to leave when contractions hit, Snow crying, Ruby ordering people around, and David barely talking besides to relay doctors updates back to Emma.

That was, until around 5:00 that morning when Whale came in, checked Snow, and moved her into delivery. Emma had been shocked at first, since they had thought that it would take all day, but it hadn't.

The doctor had told her that she couldn't go in with them. For some reason, it was a hospital policy and she had gladly gone back to the waiting area. For someone who didn't like even being there during contractions, she would probably not have too much fun in delivery.

She walked out into the waiting room and sat next to Neal, finally, resting her head on his shoulder. "They took her into delivery," she mumbled, but that was pretty much all she said for a while.

* * *

They wait and wait for what feels like days, when in reality, it's just a few hours. They all sit in the waiting room now, nobody sleeping and everybody looking much more ready to go home than they had earlier in the evening.

She looks over at Neal, who's sitting and reading his book, and sighs. "I'm going to see if the cafeteria has alcohol," she mumbles, standing and putting her coat back down on her chair. It takes him a second to process what he had just said, but when he does, he sighs loudly.

He reaches up and takes her hand, stopping her from walking any closer to the hospital cafeteria. "They don't. It's a hospital, not a tavern," he tells her, pulling her back. She sighs, walking backwards to her seat and sitting down, blowing out a puff of air.

He smiles at her, reaching across her body to her shoulder on the far side of her, just before pulling her close and kissing her head. "And besides, it's six o'clock in the morning, you're not having vodka. I won't let you get drunk before you can see your brother," he explains and she sighs, leaning against him and closing her eyes.

He smiles, reaching over and kissing her forehead. "You can take a nap. I'll wake you up when someone comes out with news," he tells her and she nods, mumbling thanks before cuddling up against him and falling asleep slowly.

Two and a half hours later, Aaron James Nolan was born.


	25. Reunion

**So, I haven't posted on this story in a while.**

 **I'm sorry to say it, but I officially will be ending this story after a couple more chapters. I don't participate in this fandom very much anymore, but I have up to chapter 29 of this story written, so I'll be posting those now. I'm sorry if you guys were waiting for the new updates. I might still post from time to time if I get inspiration, but I probably will not.**

 **I thank anybody who read these chapters, it means a lot to me. Thank you!**

 **Enjoy!**

Emma walks down the street, across the street from Granny's. Like usual, she looks in the window from across the street to see if they have their lemon pie. Whether or not she was going someplace and even if she was in a rush, she would go and get at least one slice of it, if not the whole thing.

So, when she doesn't see it, she sighs and begins to walk again, before she sees something else that is definitely not normal inside the diner. Her eyes widen and she almost crosses the street to talk to him and make sure that it was really him, she looks down at the ground and begins to walk once again.

For the rest of the day, she's thinking about it, but she doesn't know what to think. Once she leaves the station, she shakes her head, shivering a little bit from the cold and beginning to walk down the street and back home.

She looks around, like normal, and sighing. She looks over at the shoe shop, and then something catches her eye. She sees him walking into Gold's shop. She thinks about calling to him, but she knows that he probably won't hear her from all the way over there.

Emma sighs and opens the door to the apartment. She walks up the staircase, waiting to get there so that she would be able to tell her mom what she had seen that day. Once she get to the top of the stairs, she opens the door and walks inside, hanging her coat up. "Hey," she greets her mom, walking into the kitchen. "So, I saw Neal today," she starts, and Snow looks at her like she's gone insane.

Snow tilts her head to the side and lets out a sigh of sympathy. "Oh, honey. He's not here, you know that," she whispers, looking down at the kettle on the stove and taking it off, pouring some of the warm water into a mug and putting a tea bag in it.

Emma looks up at her, shaking her head. "I swear, I'm not crazy! It was _twice,_ mom. He was at Granny's, and then going to Gold's…" she pauses to take the other mug of tea that her mom had made. "If that doesn't sound like Neal, I don't know what does," she says and Snow sighs, nodding.

Emma sets the mug down with a force before standing up. "Don't believe me? Fine, I'll prove it to you. We're going to Gold's, come on," she says, standing and grabbing her coat before practically running out the door.

Snow reluctantly follows her, but she knows that if she doesn't go and Gold proves what everyone knows to be true, that won't be helping her daughter. It's a silent walk across the street, but when they get there, Emma practically breaks the door, she opens it so hard.

Gold looks up from the counter and sighs, looking up at the bell. "You and your father, Mrs. Swan. Between the two of you, I've almost broken that bell at least a hundred times," he says, trailing off with a smile on his face. "What can I do for you, Emma?" he asks and she tilts her head to the side and smiles a little bit.

She looks around for a second, but she can't seem to pick up any signs that Neal had been there. "Is Neal back?" she asks quietly, almost hesitantly. Gold sets down the box of cards he's been holding, probably his ancient sales history device, and looks away from her and then back at her.

Then, he nods. Emma smiles like nobody has ever seen her smile before and Gold points to the back of the shop, allowing her to go back there by herself for the first time. She smiles even bigger, which didn't seem humanly possible before it happened, and Emma runs to the back room.

She comes running in and knocks into a box by the door, which makes her jump back before she looks up. She sees him and a smile slowly trickles onto her face before she runs at him and almost knocks him over. "Hey," she whispers, smiling still, and he whispers something indecipherable back at her.

She leans back and smiles, looking him in the eye for a good few seconds before he breaks the silence. "Well, is this cool or _what?_ " he asks and she laughs, moving forwards and kissing him. After she lets go, he laughs and smiles at her. "I- okay. That's cool, too," he states, blushing a little bit.

Smiling, she takes his hand and leads him out of the back room, pointing at him once her mom can see them. "Look! I told you!" she almost screams at her and Snow nods, looking at the ground and sighing. "It's a person! Wait, is it real?" she says very excitedly before stopping to question it.

Neal smiles and nods, taking her hand and squeezing it tight enough to make her see that it's real. She looks at him, nodding a little bit before he kisses the top of her head and wraps his arm around her. "Do you still need help with whatever, or can I borrow him for a few hours?" she asks Gold, who smiles and looks up from his card box.

He smiles at her, shaking his head and looking up at them. "Go ahead," he tells her and she nods before nearly sprinting out of the shop, forcing Neal to follow her.

Then, the adventure started right back up again.


	26. Blowout

Emma looks over at Neal with a glare as he reads his book, seeming to be more invested in it than in her. Over the past few days, that has been all he's done. He's come home from work, only to say he was going to read and he would go and pick that same, stupid book up off of the counter.

Today was no different, and she's fed up. After a few seconds of feeling her stare at him, he sighs and closes the book with a clap. He turns to look at her, taking in a deep breath. "Alright, what's up?" he asks. She sighs and looks down at the ground and shakes her head, still angry in her demeanor and not looking willing to let up on it.

He sighs, looking over at her and setting the book down on the coffee table in front of the couch. "If you don't admit what's wrong, I'm gonna start admitting things, some of which may not be true just so that you'll regret this," he prompts teasingly, looking over at her and then back at the ground.

She doesn't say anything, and he begins to follow through with what she thought was an empty threat. "Okay, let's see. Henry's waiting at the bus stop, your parents are annoying, the diamond in your engagement ring is fake, I put us on a waitlist to adopt a puppy, your phone isn't actually charging right now-" she cuts him off right there, looking up and glaring at him some more.

He sighs, looking over at her and reaching over the gap in between them to move closer. She scoots away once he gets there and he moves closer once again. They keep this up until she gets to the edge of the couch and ends up pressed against the armrest.

She bites down hard on her lip in annoyance and he moves away, seeing that he's beginning to cross a line and once he has, he might not be turning back. "Emma," he mumbles, in a tone that just screams that he thinks she's being unreasonable about something if she won't even tell him about it.

She knows that she's being unreasonable. It's going to sound like she's being unreasonable any way that she says it. It's not even the whole book thing that's bothering her. It's that he's not paying any attention to her anymore, even when he's _not_ reading the book. He never listens when she's talking, he rarely pays attention when she's upset, and he spends long hours at work doing nothing. Nothing.

She knows that he won't understand. He'll see it as her just being unreasonable and maybe say that it's all in her head, but that doesn't make any difference to her. Anything in your head is still real if it's been thought of.

Everything starts off as an idea. Her first idea, that first night that he started acting funny, was that he might just be tired. Then, something might be bothering him. Then he might be mad at her. Then he might want to break up with her. Then he was cheating. Now he's leaving. With all of her ideas, they all were real. They all were possible.

This new one is the most possible any of them have been, but they've all been the most possible ideas at some point. And all because of a stupid psychology book. Maybe he was analyzing her. Maybe he was picking out and noting her flaws when she wasn't paying attention so he could use them against her. And for what?

He looks over at her, moving away and sitting back against the back of the couch. When he'd been in her space, up close and personal, she'd wanted him gone. Now, she wants him to come back. He sighs, closing his eyes and opening them back up dramatically, like he's always done when he's annoyed.

He puts his hand on his leg and sighs again. "Look, I don't know what you want. I can't read your mind, so either you can tell me, or I'm gonna leave it alone," he states, staring at her and waiting for an answer.

She shakes her head, looking over at him. "You're not gonna understand," she argues before looking away from him and back at the fireplace, suddenly acting like the red, blood colored bricks were the most beautiful things she'd ever seen.

He looks over at her and shrugs, making a face. "I usually do. I might this time, too," he replies, looking over at her and waiting for her to say something back, just _anything_ to keep a conversation going. Good things, bad things. Angry things, sad things. Anything.

She takes a loud, deep breath and he takes a silent one, knowing that when she does that it means he's in for a ride. "You haven't been listening," she starts, and he takes a deep breath, as if about to question it, maybe even debate it, but he stops himself. "You haven't been paying attention to anything," she says, trying not to start yelling at the beginning of a conversation.

He waits for a long pause that indicates it's his turn and then begins to speak. "Okay… I think I have, Em. I've been _trying_ to, at least. I didn't know that there was something to listen to," he states and she looks at him like he's lost his mind and opens her mouth to talk some more, but he's not done. "I've asked you if you had something to talk about and you said no," he tells her.

She takes another deep breath, one that's bigger and angrier than the one prior to it. "No, I did not. You asked if I had something that I _needed_ to talk about and I said no. There's a difference, Neal," she points out and he sighs, rolling his eyes a little bit.

He scoffs, looking back at her and slapping his leg as a gesture as he speaks and the conversation progressively gets more tense. "Yeah, what is it? Tell me, I'm dying to know," he asks and she shakes her head, looking over at the wall. "Come on. What is it. If it's such a big deal, why don't you tell me?" he asks, practically yelling but not quite there yet.

She looks at him and turns to completely face him, getting ready to make this even more dramatic and intense than it had been. "The difference is, you ask someone if there's something that they _need_ to talk about when you don't really give a crap, and you ask someone if they _have_ anything to talk about when you actually want to talk to them," she nearly yells and he barely gives her any time to think before he starts yelling back.

He looks at her in rage and disbelief. "Are you saying that I said I didn't want to talk to you?! That's ridiculous!" he asks and shakes his head, rolling his eyes and scoffing.

She shakes her head, looking over at him and yelling back at him before he finishes speaking. "Yes! That is exactly what you said!" she screams, looking him in the eyes and making him even more outraged than he was before.

He turns to face her as he does so, both of their faces red and hot and they both look more furious than they've been since they first met again. "When did I say I didn't want to talk to you?!" he yells in question, looking away from her because he knows that doing so will either make him stop yelling or make him yell louder.

She stares him dead in the eye as she speaks, though, and not meeting her gaze is hard when he's being yelled at. "When you stopped!" she nearly screams, louder than she has before and he shakes his head, looking down at the coffee table to look away from her.

He thinks she might be done there when she takes a long pause, but apparently, she's not. "When you haven't said three words to me before now in the past two days. When that book is more interesting than your fianceé," she screams, looking over at him, tears building in her eyes. He's prepared for this list to go on and on.

She calms down now, her yells beginning to turn into tears as she begins speaking once again. "When I've spent the past week wondering if you're leaving," she says normally, beginning to break down into tears. He can't keep yelling at her. Not when she's this upset because of him, not when he made her cry.

He doesn't know if she wants him to go and let her calm herself down or if she wants him to stay and try to comfort her, but he knows that leaving her by herself right now will just make it worse and result in an even bigger fight.

He doesn't go.

He slowly moves closer to her, and she's too wrapped up in her own tears to care that he's doing anything. Once he's close enough to her that their legs are touching, he slows down. Almost at sloth-speed, he gets closer and wraps his arms around her, putting his hand on the back of her head and bringing it to rest on his shoulder.

That's as far as he'll go for a few minutes. He doesn't want to change this kind of upset to screaming upset. This kind of upset might be more heartbreaking, but it's easier to deal with than explosive Emma.

After a while, he starts to whisper and mumble quiet apologies to her. It's so faint that he's not even sure she can hear him, but after she reaches up and wraps her arms around him, too, he sees that she can. He lets out a long, quiet sigh of relief as he begins to slowly sway side to side, trying to calm her down.

He's not sure that he understands, still. Of course, he won't say that to her, not now. He has to wait a little while, at least until she's all calmed down. He has to make sure that she's not still pissed before he tells her that he doesn't know why the way he phrased something that was supposed to be nice meant so much to her.

For now, though, he waits until she's stopped jolting with sobs and has started trembling, instead, before he starts talking at all. "Are you okay?" he asks quietly and she nods, pulling back and wiping her eyes.

Her breathing is still coming in doubles when she moves back away from him and looks down at the couch. "Hey," he whispers, getting her attention. "I'm sorry. I should have thought about if you were getting what you needed instead of just myself," he states. She shrugs, looking down at the couch.

He tests the waters and tries moving closer, and to his surprise, she doesn't move backwards any more. He reaches out slowly and takes both of her hands, which are resting on her knees, in his. "Not 'shrug'. It matters, okay? I'm sorry," he apologizes once more, waiting for her to say something, not just shrug.

She looks up at him, an embarrassed look in her eye as she speaks. "I forgive you," she mumbles, looking back down at the couch immediately afterwards.

He looks at her and smiles a little bit. "Thank you," he whispers. She nods a little bit as he reaches up and pulls her in for another hug. He rubs her back for a second before letting go. "Just tell me next time, alright? It sucks when it gets that far," he asks and she nods, looking him in the eyes once more. "Pinky promise?" he asks.

She laughs and nods, shaking on it before they both move to cuddle up beside each other and eventually fall asleep like that, in each others arms, both exhausted from all the yelling and emotion released before.


	27. A Stranger

Emma walks in the back room at Granny's, looking back to make sure that Henry's still following her. She finds him still behind her, but staring down at his phone. She scoffs before opening the door and looking around and finding Neal sitting at the counter.

She smiles and goes up to sit in the empty seat beside him, Henry going and sitting on the other side of her. "Hey," she greets, pulling Henry over so that he wouldn't fall off of his chair.

Neal looks up at her and smiles, before looking over and seeing Henry. "Hey," he greets quietly so that Henry won't hear him. "What's up?" he asks, looking back and forth between her and Henry in utter disbelief.

She smiles, chuckling, and takes the coffee that Ruby had placed in front of her within seconds of her sitting down. "I was wondering if you could watch Henry for a while? I have this _work_ thing with Regina," she explains.

He looks at her like she's completely lost her mind and stands up, waving her over to the back of the diner. She looks over at him before following suit. "I thought you didn't want me to see him," he says, concerned, confused, and absolutely adorable.

She shakes her head, looking out at all the people through the window in the door. "I did say that; however, I've thought a lot about what happened that day, and I don't think I could forgive myself if something were to have happened to you and he didn't get to see you again. Also, I don't really trust anyone else with him," she says, trailing off towards the end.

He looks up at her and smiles, looking into her eyes. Something tells her that he'll want to do it, probably the look in his eyes. "You trust me with him?" he asks in disbelief and she just freezes for a second, taking in the fact that he wasn't sure about that and her heart beats like a drum while she speaks next.

"Of course, I do. You're a great dad, Neal. I know that you're not going to do anything stupid to try win him over- impress him… right?" she asks and he nods fast and confidently. "Okay, then. You can take him?" she confirms, and he looks at her, nodding and she smiles at him. "Thank you," she whispers, beginning to open the door.

He reaches out and puts his hand on her arm before pulling back like he'd burned himself. "Sorry. Sorry," he says, and she looks at him like he's crazy. "I just wanted to say thank you," he says, his head tilted down and he looks up at her, smiling a little bit.

She releases the door and lets it swing closed. She steps towards him and pulls him into her arms, closing her eyes tight before letting go. "You don't need to thank me," she says. "He's your son. If you want to see him, you can."

She looks at him one last time before opening the door and walking out of it, over to Henry. "Kid," she calls, causing him to look up from his phone before turning it off. "I want you to meet someone," she says, looking him in the eyes before looking up at Neal, who's just making his way over to them.

She smiles at him, putting his hand on his arm once he gets over there. "This is Neal," she starts, looking Henry in the eyes to see if he recognized the name, but he didn't seem to remember a 'Neal'.

"He's your dad," she states and Henry's mouth opens slightly before he looks over at his dad. "You're gonna spend some time with him today, alright? Text me if you need me to get you. I gotta go," she says, looking over at Neal and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving.

* * *

Emma sighs as she walks down the stairs at her parents' loft. "He's asleep- or is acting like it, at least," she says, going down the stairs to sit beside Neal. "Did he behave? He wasn't a little version of a demon or anything, right? He hasn't exactly heard the best things in the past…" she explains, and he shakes his head.

He takes a sip of his hot cocoa from Granny's before responding. "Nah, he was fine. He's a good kid," he tells her, looking her in the eyes and she smiles, nodding and looking up the stairs.

"Yeah, he is," she agrees, looking over at him and smiling before standing and walking into the kitchen. She makes a hot cocoa quickly before walking back to him. "So, I was thinking about this earlier-." she starts, looking at her cocoa, not at Neal.

Upon hearing just that, he interrupted her. "Please let me see him again," he blurts, before looking down at his drink and sighing, biting the inside of his lip and closing his eyes.

She looks over at him and relaxes, moving closer to him and smiling a little bit. "I wasn't gonna say you couldn't," she whispers, looking him in the eyes and he nods, looking down at his lap and sighing. "So, anyway; I was thinking that maybe he should go with someone that he wasn't… angry with. Just until the curse is broken, then we can do whatever."

He nods, looking down at this cup again. "Yeah, totally. I mean, he didn't seem to have a problem with it today, but- you know, you're his mom, so you know what's best," he states and she sighs, shaking her head. "I'm sorry if you feel like I tried to guilt you into letting him come with me today. I didn't mean to," he says, straightening out his jacket.

She looks over at him as he's standing up. "I should probably go. Let me know, though, if you want me to see him again," he says, walking to the door before opening it and walking outside quickly.

It takes her a second to register what just happened but when she does, she jumps up and runs out of the apartment to catch up with him. It takes her a minute to catch up with him, seeing as he's left the building and is halfway down the street, but when she does, she runs in front of him to stop him.

He nearly runs into her, and he puts his hand on her shoulder to stop himself. "I didn't mean it like that. I just want him to be happy, and I don't want _him_ to be hurting _you,"_ she states, but he looks around, shaking his head a little bit while sighing.

"I know it's not that, Emma. You might know me, but he doesn't. I get it, you don't want to leave him with a stranger. Either way, you'd probably end up regretting it. With me, you never really know," he states, before turning around to walk in the other direction.

She sighs before following him and doing the same thing as last time. "He's your son, Neal. You're not a stranger," she states and he walks around her, completely ignoring her. "I don't regret it! Not any of it!" she calls after him. He turns around, looking her in the eyes.

He starts walking back over to her, his hands in his pockets. "You don't?" he questions, standing across from her.

She shakes her head, looking up at him and smiling a little bit. "I don't," she confirms, and he tilts his head to the side, looking a little bit confused before looking down at the ground. She sighs before looking up at him and putting her hand on the back of his neck and pulling him to her.

He's surprised for a second but he kisses her back, smiling at the same time. After they stop, she still doesn't let go, and he notices that his hands have gone to her waist, just like they used to. "No. Regrets," she says, smiling brightly.

He leans back and gives her a look, as if he's testing her. "None? Not one?" he asks, and she tilts her head to the side, scrunching her nose up.

"Well, maybe just that we never got a chance to find Tallahassee," she whispers, a hint of sadness and longing to her voice.

He leans down a little bit, smiling and putting his lips right by her ear. "I'm pretty sure we're there, Em," he chuckles and she smiles, closing her eyes and leaning towards him, letting him wrap his arms around her before she takes his hand and they walk back to the loft together.


	28. You Again

A night of remembering.

That's what they've silently chosen to have tonight. They sit outside on the fire escape outside the loft with hot cocoa and a small speaker, playing Lou Reed albums.

They'd discussed many prominent old memories, including some from when they first met and Emma felt like she couldn't get far enough away from Neal. She'd told him this and he just laughed and said, "Like I didn't know that's how you felt," sarcastically.

They'd also talked about some other hard ones, like all the times when one of them would wake up in the middle of the night screaming and the other would try to calm them down by driving around a little bit, or letting them cuddle up against them however they wanted for the rest of the night.

For minutes at a time, there would be dead silence in which neither one of them would know whether or not the other was crying because it was so dark out.

It was after a long time when they really got to joking around, and the catchphrase for the night changed from "Well, duh," to "How drunk was I? I don't remember that and it's probably for the best."

There was one point after many minutes of sitting in the quiet and listening to the music that Emma thought of something to say. "I wish we could do that again," she whispers, looking out at the lights in the city.

Neal turns to her, despite not being able to see her. "Do what again?" he asks, preparing himself for some comment that would be just too freaking hard for him to take.

She shrugs, he feels it as her sleeve brushes against his arm. "I don't know, all of it; act like idiots, go on adventures, be stupid on purpose… be together," she trails off towards the end and Neal's hand goes to touch hers, his fingers just barely grazing the back of it before he weaves his fingers between hers.

She closes her eyes lightly and smiles, squeezing his hand. "We can still go on adventures, and act like idiots sometimes, and, you know… be together," he tries, but he doesn't want to upset her and he knows that he might have to take it back.

"We couldn't go on adventures anymore, though. Not as much, at least," she sighs and he smiles, closing his eyes at her constant need for adventure. "We'd have to actually have a home and stuff. It would be official, like, from the start," she states, and he nods, looking up at the stars that are shining over them.

He sighs, squeezing her hand subconsciously. "Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing, though, Em. Maybe just the settling down could be our adventure for a while. There's always some kind of an adventure to go on, even if you don't actually have to go anywhere," he tells her, and she looks over at him.

She's barely able to see the outline of his face in the dark of the night. "Do you have to say such profound things all the time?" she sighs, and he smiles before turning back to look at the road. "It makes people around you feel stupid," she states, chuckling and he smiles, closing his eyes for a second.

He looks over at her and smiles, knowing that she can't see him, but smiling anyway. "I have to say them because you won't understand any other way," he states. She shrugs, smiling at him and kissing him on the cheek.

He smiles and blushes a little bit before reaching behind him and changing the song on the speaker. "I miss you," he whispers, turning around and squeezing her hand a little bit.

Her head snaps up and she turns to look at him. "I'm right here, though," she states, all confused.

He shakes his head, looking out at the street. "But you're not who you were," he mumbles, looking up at the stars above them after a second. "You're not the same. At least not around me," he states, taking his hand from hers.

She looks over at him, knowing that she won't be able to see him. "Well- Neal, that's not even fair. You can't blame me and you can't blame yourself. It would've happened eventually. I had to grow up at some point," she states, looking over at him and tilting her head to the side.

He shakes his head again, disagreeing with her. "It's not even that you grew up, though, Emma. You just don't- you don't _talk_ to people. You won't talk to _me_ ," he states and she looks down at the patterned floor beneath them. "I don't know how to get you to anymore, either," he states.

She looks up at him and bites the inside of her cheek before responding. "What do you wanna know?" she asks. He scoffs, shaking his head and looking around at the lights. He stands up, going to stand on the stairs.

She looks over at him, his face more illuminated further away from the light coming from inside the apartment. "That's not what I mean, Emma. I mean, you don't tell anybody about how you feel, or what's going on with you, or how you're doing! No wonder nobody really knows you here, you don't say anything!" he whisper shouts, hoping not to wake anybody up.

"What do you want me to say?!" she replies, speaking in the same tone of voice. "That you broke my heart?! That I never wanted to see you again?! That I hated you?! _What?!_ " she yells back at him. "You have no right to be mad at me for not wanting to talk to you about that kind of thing. Neither does anyone else, for that matter! You can't just abandon someone and then expect them to want to talk to you!" she yells at full volume now before going back inside through the window so that he couldn't scream back at her.

Once he follows her, he finds her in the kitchen, tears beginning to fill her eyes as she pours a glass of water. "I don't expect you to want to talk to me. I just really, really wish you would. And I really wish you were you again, not this big, scary, sheriff-person," he tells her and she closes her eyes, setting her glass of water down.

"Okay, here's the thing: I don't want to talk to you about prison, I don't want to talk about you leaving, I don't want to talk about what happened directly after I got out, I don't want to talk about giving up Henry, and I especially do _not_ want to talk about what happened that entire night. Okay?" she asks, he nods.

She nods. "Okay," she says, looking down at the ground after that. For a solid minute, there's silence as she tries as hard as humanly possible to just let her walls down. She can't tell whether or not she has until her mind tells her that she wants a hug and she steps forwards, wrapping her arms around Neal.

She can hear a sigh of relief before he squeezes her extra, super tightly. She can feel it as he smiles against her hair after giving her a kiss on the top of her head. "I swear, if you ever leave again, that is _it,_ " she tells him and he nods, closing his eyes and kissing her on the head.

"Em?" he asks. She picks her head up off of his chest and leans back to look at him. "I'm really glad that you're trying," he states before kissing her head one last time and taking her hand as they make their way back outside.


	29. Going Nowhere

**So, for this one the prompt was one that I really, really could not think of an idea for, so I switched to a backup list that I'll use for the ones that have to be filled in. Enjoy**

Neal went out to get some things from the store. He'd been gone for fifteen, maybe twenty minutes before he got back home and went upstairs to their new little apartment. He dropped all the bags down on the counters.

He started putting things away. First the sodas, bread, deli meat- things that he thought they might want to have in the house to eat or drink when they were hungry. He didn't think about them maybe being the wrong kind- well, he did, but he didn't worry about it, because he knew that they were still learning. Emma would make mistakes, too.

As he put things away, he realized that half of the things he got were reduced fat, which wasn't nearly as good as 'all fat' but he figured that it might be better for them anyway.

It's once he's done putting everything away that he realizes that the apartment had been eerily quiet this whole time. He doesn't know where Emma might've gone; he took the car to go to the store.

He walks out of the kitchen and down the short hallway, into their bedroom. He looks around, but sees nothing different from when he left. Emma isn't there.

He then goes and looks through the other rooms, even checking the kitchen again before going back around to check the bathroom. He makes his way down the hall, only to see that the door was cracked open, which it hadn't been the whole time they'd been in the house.

He did make that mistake once, but Emma yelled at him, claiming that they'd never know if someone was in there if the door was just cracked open.

Now, she proved to have been right. He can't tell whether or not she's in there, or whether or not it's safe to go in, but he opens it anyway. He does it slowly, so that he'll be able to just slam it shut if he has to. As he opens it, though, he gets more confident that she's not in there as he doesn't hear her screaming at him.

He quickly opens it after about half way before stepping inside. It's a big enough bathroom, so it takes a minute for him to turn around to find Emma sitting there, her back against the wall and looking sicker than he'd ever seen her.

He looks at her for a second longer before walking over. When he gets there, he notices the vile substance in the toilet bowl and wrinkles his nose up, looking over at her. "What's making you spill your guts?" he asks.

She looks up at him, slowly, her eyes glossed over as she gives him her best 'seriously' look, even while looking absolutely miserable. "Headache. Stop joking around," she mumbles, leaning back against the wall, her arms crossed over her stomach, holding it tight.

He looks back at the toilet and then to her. "Headache, huh?" he asks, walking over to her and kneeling down beside her. He puts his hand on the side of her face and uses the other one to hold her hand. "That doesn't look like a headache, Em," he states, rubbing her cheek with his thumb.

She breathes in sharply and he moves out of the way, letting her quickly move over and just barely make it into the toilet again. There's another minute or two of her just trying to force anything else to come up, but nothing does. "Okay, that's all. Pretty sure that's all that there is," he chuckles, putting his hand on her back, the other on her stomach to move her away from it.

He flushes it quickly so that the smell doesn't move through the whole apartment before turning back to her. "You okay? Besides the puking, I mean," he says and she nods, closing her eyes lightly and leaning back against the cool wall.

He takes her hand, causing her to look up at him. "You should rest, Em. Do you want to try to walk?" he asks and she nods, letting him help her up. Her knees give out within seconds and he helps ease her back down slowly, so that she won't hurt herself.

He looks at her for a second as she breathes hard and fast, the fear of falling having hit her hard. "Okay, well… You can't walk. Can I carry you, or do you want to spend the next few hours in here?" he asks, knowing that she has some pretty strong feelings about being carried places, _especially_ when she's sick.

Now, though, she doesn't seem to care. In fact, rather than fighting him, she holds her arms up to him and he laughs, reaching over and picking her up bridal style. As he stands up from his squatted position on the floor, he shifts a little bit and she tenses a little bit, scared.

He looks at her and smiles a little bit as she relaxes and rests her head on his shoulder. He slowly makes his way to the bedroom, being extra careful not to knock her into any door frames or any boxes still in the hallway.

When they get to the bedroom, he takes her over to the bed and lays her down. She smiles up at him, clearly exhausted, but still smiling. He smiles, putting the blanket over her and leaning over to kiss her on the head.

He's about to get up and go, but she stops him. "Can you stay?" she asks quietly. If it was any other time, if she wasn't so sick, he would assume that she's embarrassed, but he knows it's just her throat that's sore.

He nods, flipping the blankets back before laying down beside her and tucking his feet in. He fixes the blanket again, and as he does so, Emma comes and curls up beside him, resting her head on his shoulder and putting her hand on his chest, gripping his shirt gently.

He reaches up and slowly eases her hand off of it. As he does so, she looks up at him with a certain look in her eyes- one holding fear and confusion, but mostly, plain tiredness. "I'm not going anywhere, Em. I promise," he tells her, kissing her forehead and twisting his hand around so that he's holding hers. "I'm not going anywhere."


	30. Sick

**I thought I was taking a break, but I kinda miss writing... should I keep posting?**

* * *

Regina called Emma to tell her that she wouldn't be taking Henry to her apartment that morning. "He's sick. He was throwing up all night. He got it from me, I can handle it," she had said after a while of arguing over the phone and then hanging up on her.

Still, Emma drove to Regina's and picked Henry up, stating that she knew how to take care of him when he was sick, too. She had gone to the store beforehand and picked up lots of bread and Gatorade, hoping that they were bland enough for him to keep down.

They were not. After about two and a half hours of him throwing up and sweating all over the towel she laid out on the couch, he finally fell asleep.

Emma practically cried out of relief when she noticed that he was completely passed out and snoring, but she knew that that was not the adult thing to do. She was trying to take care of her sick son, who was absolutely miserable, and she didn't need to make him feel worse by being so glad that he was finally done vomiting and crying for a while and he could just rest.

A while after he woke up and fell asleep for the second time, she ended up passing out right next to him on the couch. When she woke up, she was feeling less than great, but Henry seemed to be pretty close to his usual self.

She called Regina, even though it was Neal's week (Regina seemed pretty adamant about reminding her of that) and told her to come and get Henry. She came to get him, and that's when Emma slammed the door in her face to go and lose whatever it was that she'd eaten the night before in the bathroom.

She leans back against the wall in the bathroom and closes her eyes tight, reminding herself that she would not feel better if she sleeps on the floor. It takes a minute, but she convinces herself to get up and go to the couch.

She sits exactly where Henry had been the day before and she sighs, picking up her phone and scrolling through her contacts to find Neal's name. Without even hesitating, she calls him. He doesn't pick up within the first few rings, but he does eventually.

"Hey, Henry's with Regina. He was sick last night, I don't know if you want to pick him up or not," she states, standing up and walking to the bedroom.

"I will in a little while, just heading out to help David with something. Are you okay?" he asks, listening as she plopped onto the bed and sighed.

She waits a second before responding. "Yeah, I'm fine. I think Henry might've given me whatever he had, but it went away after a few hours for him," she states.

On the other end, she could hear the car door close and she waited for him to say something. "Okay... I'll come over there after this, it shouldn't take long."

"Neal-"

"Don't. You are sick, Emma. I can hear it in your voice. I'm gonna be there after I finish this with David. Bye!" he hung up the phone before she had the chance to say anything else.

She groaned and threw her phone down on the bed.

* * *

"Emma, open the door!" he called from outside the bathroom door. "Do not make me pick this lock," he threatened. She'd locked herself in there only minutes after he'd arrived and had been there for over a half hour without saying anything.

After threatening to pick the lock more than once, he was ready to make good on that promise. "Emma, you need to say something. Anything. Just so I know that you're okay," he says. "This is silly. You're sick. I knew that before I decided to come over here. It's okay to let somebody take care of you for once. Open the door, Emma."

Just as he was leaning back from the door to dig the paperclip out of his pocket, he heard the lock click. He opened the door, careful to make sure that he didn't hit her with it.

She sat against the wall next to the bathtub while the shower ran inside of it. "It's freezing in here," he states, looking inside the shower and testing the water with his hand. "That's the point, isn't it?" he asks. She nods, closing her eyes.

He reaches behind him and closes the door to keep the cold air in the bathroom. "You know, there are ice packs in the freezer and cold Gatorade in the fridge. You don't have to sit in here," he tells her, looking down at her from where he stands next to the counter.

She looks at the ground and then back up at him. "Did you put those there?" she asks, her voice hoarse from not using it.

He chuckles and nods. "Who else would?" he asks. She shrugs and looks over at the shower curtain. "Come on, we can come back to the freezer later if we need to," he assures, reaching his hand out for her to take.

She just stared at it for a second before looking up at him and taking it. He helped her get to the kitchen and sit down at the barstool before handing her a Gatorade from the fridge. "Do you need anything else?" he asks, standing across the counter from her.

She shakes her head, taking a long sip of the Gatorade. "Okay. Well, what can I do?" he asks, slapping his hands down onto the counter.

She shrugs and sets the cup back down. "Be here. Be you. No one else can," she says, smiling at him and leaning forward to rest her head on her hand.

He smiles at her, reaching forward to take her other hand and rubs the back of it. "I'll be me, then. Do you wanna go lay down?" he asks, noticing the way her eyes are drooping. She nods and waits for him to come around to the other side of the counter before standing up.

She practically falls against him and he chuckles, putting his arm around her. "Okay, let's get you into bed," he sighs, kissing the side of her head.


	31. Everything Will Be Alright

**I haven't updated this story in so long! *waves* Hi! I took a prompt from another list for this chapter! Please remember to leave a review of any** _ **length!**_ **I enjoy them all!**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"Neal, please put me down, it's just a sprained ankle," Emma grips around his neck, trying to keep herself from falling backward off of him.

He tightens his grip on her thighs as he steps down from a tree root, trying not to jostle her around too much. "We don't know that, though," he grumbles, barely avoiding a tree branch to the face. "Besides, if you'd just listened to me-"

Emma puffs, pulling one of her hands into a fist as he trips, almost falling. "I think this might be more dangerous than walking on a broken ankle." If she wasn't trying so hard to stay balanced, she would've pulled her hand back and put it over her eyes. He stops, standing on a flat, even piece of land to thoroughly regain his balance.

He winces, taking his hand off of her good leg and putting it against a tree to stabilize himself. "Sorry. You okay?"

She nods, sighing and taking a deep breath. "Well, if you won't let me walk on my own, can you at least stop to rest for a minute? We don't exactly need you working yourself to exhaustion right now."

She feels him let out a sigh before helping her down, sitting her on a log. "Does it feel any worse than before?" He sits in front of her on the ground, taking a sip from the skin Killian gave him.

She shakes her head, taking the water that he offers her. "It's about the same. I'm sure I could put weight on it," she starts to argue.

" _No,_ " he starts, leaning forwards and shaking his head. "Look, we don't need you making it worse. I'll take you back to the camp and Regina will look at it, see if she can heal it, okay? Let's just focus on making it back and _finding Henry._ It is not worth it to miss a chance at finding him because of this," he finishes with a shaky breath, pulling his knees up to his chest and running a hand through his hair.

There's a moment of silence. Emma looks back and forth between her hands and Neal, trying to think of something to say.

"Do you think they'll hurt him?"

Her voice is small. Quiet.

Neal sits back, looking up at the trees and shaking his head. "I don't know," he looks up at her. She's looking down at her hands, but he can see that her eyes must be _stinging,_ she's trying so hard to keep it together.

He opens his mouth and closes it again. He doesn't know what to say to make her feel better. That's only ever happened recently, and he's still not used to it yet.

His mind races, trying to think of something to say.

Soon enough, something comes spilling out anyway. "Pan never really hurt me. He let the boys do it once he realized I wasn't of any value to him, but he never touched me himself," he starts, but when he looks back up at her, he sees that he's making it worse.

He moves closer to her, putting his hand on her knee. "Emma, look at me," he whispers, looking straight up at her. She takes a minute, but eventually, she does what he asks. "They're not gonna hurt him. Pan won't let 'em. If he needs him for something -which he _does,_ or we'd've found him by now- he would never let those boys lay a finger on him."

She shakes her head, closing her eyes. "But what if they hurt him in a different way?"

Neal looks up at her, a confused look in his eyes. "What do you mean?" he squeezes her knee, hoping that it's more comforting than bothersome.

She takes a deep breath. "What if they scare him? Or if they make him think we're not coming for him? That's worse than hurting him, right? He can't completely recover from that, you and I _both_ know it," her breath comes out shaky.

He nods, looking down at her shoes, thinking of how to make it any better. "You're right, he can't. But," he pauses for emphasis, leaning forwards a bit more. " _Henry_ is one of the toughest little people I've ever met. He won't give up hope that we're coming for him, not for _years."_

This seems to make her feel a little better, as she offers a teary little half-smile. "Now, that being said," he stops again, giving her a second to realize that it doesn't stop there, "he's probably gonna be a little bit… _scarred,_ let's say, after this adventure," she chuckles a little bit at his choice of words, but he keeps going. "But he'll be okay. He'll start seeing Archie again, and we can alternate nights with him if he starts having nightmares. He'll be okay," he whispers, squeezing her knee again for good measure.

She nods, reaching up and wiping away a stray tear and smiling back at him. "Now, let's go back. We're losing daylight!"

She chuckles, grabbing onto him as he bends down to give her a chance to climb on. "Really? Wow! I haven't seen the sun since we got here," she jokes, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He moves her a little bit, getting a better grip on her legs. "Huh. I guess you missed it!" he chuckles, starting to walk back to the camp.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**


	32. Coffee Break

**Hey, guys! So, I've made a decision to post on Archive of Our Own. I'm still gonna try to remember to update on here, but I might not, so... I guess check out my tumblr (my usual username without the periods between the words) to find that account! Please enjoy!**

This is the second night that Emma hasn't slept.

Last night, it was the fear of having a nightmare. She'd lost sleep to this many times before, and normally she'd just lay there and a somewhat peaceful sleep would eventually overtake her, but it hadn't worked out in her favor that night. She'd decided at around three o'clock that it wasn't worth it to even stay in bed and had gotten out to get her laptop and watched Netflix in her bed.

Tonight, well… tonight's a different story. She'd gone to bed at eleven o'clock, hoping to fall asleep before one, but then Henry came in for help with homework, her dad wanted to know why she hadn't filled out her paperwork, and by the time it was all over, she'd gotten a burst of energy.

So, she laid in bed all night, restless, trying to find a comfortable position (to no avail), and got up with her alarm the next morning.

Now, she's at her desk, running on a medium vanilla latte from Granny's and the hope that she'd be able to get something done, to spare herself a second lecture from her father about the same pile of papers. She hadn't yet had a run-in with Leroy, so she's hoping that the day will be somewhat decent.

That's when she hears the front door open.

She sighs, putting her head on her desk and closing her eyes, praying that it's not a disgruntled townsperson. The door to the station opens, and she elected to ignore it in hopes that they would just _go away._

"Uh- Emma?" she picks her head up, finding Neal there, two coffees in hand along with _a piece of paper._ "I brought you somethin'- actually, I brought you two things, but I think you'll like this one better," he passes over one of two coffees.

"Thanks," she smiles, watching as he pulls over a wheely chair from the main part of the station, sitting in it at the short end of her desk. "So, you have paperwork for me, too?"

He nods, passing the sheet over to her. "Yeah, so, I just wanted to give this to you, I'm not sure that there's a specific, like, 'turn-in box', or whatever, so…" she takes it, looking over it before seeing the top words written- ' _Application for Deputy Position'._

She doesn't notice when her eyes go wide. " _Oh,_ " she blinks a couple of times making sure that she's reading it right, and, also, that she _doesn't have to fill it out._

He holds his breath, looking down. "That excited, huh?" he sets his coffee down on the desk.

She looks up, shaking her head and putting the paper down, "Oh, _no._ I'm cool with it, I just- this is kinda David's territory," she explains, looking down at the table, "and I didn't know you were thinking of applying, so, that's part of it, too. Did you tell me that? I feel like I might've actually known that…" she closes her eyes, putting her hand over them. "I'm sorry. I'm _really_ rambling, aren't I? I haven't slept in ages- actually, it's been two nights, but it _feels_ like ages," she looks up to him chuckling silently at her.

He leans forward, putting his elbows on the desk, "Are you tired, Emma?"

She raises her eyebrows, taking a sip of her coffee. "You better know it."

He chuckles and stands, walking to the other side of her desk. "Well, I hope you wake up some more. I gotta go, I have a call with my old office in New York in a bit," he tells her, squeezing her arm and going to the door. "See ya later."

"Bye," she grumbles, eternally grateful for the coffee- and the possibility of some help with her paperwork in the future.

 **Prompt for this chapter- "I haven't slept in ages."**


End file.
